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Cracking Down On Health Care Fraud

In a last-ditch attempt to incorporate Republican priorities into his health care reform bill, and appeal to a wary public, President Obama announces a plan to crack down on health care fraud by using private auditors to uncover improper payments of all kinds, according to a Kaiser Health News roundup.

The Boston Globe's story on Obama's new proposal makes the plan sound really cool and futuristic, with the President calling for "high-tech bounty hunters to help root out health care fraud, grabbing a populist idea with bipartisan backing in his final push to overhaul the system." The story continues:

"Waste and fraud are pervasive problems for Medicare and Medicaid. ... Improper payments — in the wrong amounts, to the wrong person or for the wrong reason — totaled an estimated $54 billion in 2009. ... The bounty hunters in this case would be private auditors armed with sophisticated computer programs to scan Medicare and Medicaid billing data for patterns of bogus claims. The auditors would get to keep part of any funds they recover for the government." (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/9)

This program aired on March 10, 2010. The audio for this program is not available.

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