News

Latest News

Stopping Medicare Fraud

Sep 14, 2011 | Blog

Today, Senator Mark Kirk (IL) introduced a bill to establish a smart card pilot program under the Medicare program which would curb the estimated $60 billion per year of waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare system. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this bill. Medicare is already facing long-term challenges, so we need to protect seniors and prevent people from abusing the system.

This bill would create a common access card for Medicare recipients. This card would help curb fraud by:

  • Verifying beneficiaries are authorized to receive services and pharmaceuticals or equipment being prescribed;
  • Verifying providers are authorized to provide those services and bill Medicare;
  • Preventing imposters from posing as beneficiaries or providers, thereby thwarting fraudulent transactions; and
  • Verifying and coding each transaction to prevent phantom billing, processing errors and durable medical equipment (DME) abuse.