Medicaid fraud bill asks for palm scan device

[The Straight Story]

ALBANY -- Palm-scanning devices and identification cards could become part of a doctor's appointment under proposed legislation that aims to crack down on Medicaid fraud.

The bill, introduced Wednesday by Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, D-Bronx, and Sen. Michael Ranzenhofer, R-Amherst, would dish out Medicard cards equipped with biometric technology.

The bill's sponsors say the initial $20 million investment is a fraction of the estimated $5 billion in Medicaid fraud that occurs annually in the state. Medicaid is a medical care program for low-income residents.

"We now have a system of 'pay and chase' that allows mass and wide-scale fraud to occur, then we investigate, prosecute and try to recover the stolen money," Rivera said.

http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Medicaid-fraud-bill-asks-scan-device-1326257.php

[ejpoeta]

1. now who would suffer for that!! you already have to get fingerprinted

when you get approved for assistance at least where i live in wny. if the doctor's are committing fraud, why are the people on medicaid being punished for it?

[hedgehog]

2. Because it's the patients who somehow are defrauding medicaid...

:eyes:


The fraud cases I've read about all involve the providers, not the patients!

[grilled onions]

3. When Do We "Palm" The Ones Running The Shady Clinics?

Or the shady doctors who charge for tests and surgeries never done? The overcharges that somehow ends up into their profitable pockets? I don't know of anyone on Medicaid that has profited by the tests and surgeries they have had done.

[haele]

4. Actually, it can be a way of cutting down provider fraud -

Linking a palm scan to a record ensures that the patient was actually there for that procedure if the doctor decides to bill for it. The hospital/clinic system we go to has an electronic record keeping system that is linked to a palm scanner for patient and insurance provider identification.

A lot of the fraud appears to come from doctors or hospitals charging for visits or procedures that never occured, or otherwise phantom "patients" apparently billing on medical cards that are not theirs.
It's annoying, but it's actually quicker to get through check in to see your doctor using the palm scanner than filling out all the f'n forms... And certainly not as intrusive as gluing or tatooing a bar-code on the patient.

Haele

[obxhead]

5. A fraud rate of about 1% is now

"mass and wide-scale"

Private companies dream have having a fraud and loss rate of only 1%.