HCFA launches Medicare fraud Web site
HCFA launches Medicare fraud Web site
The Health Care Financing Administration's new Medicare Web site (www.medicare.gov), announced last month by Vice President Al Gore, includes a section designed to educate Medicare beneficiaries about fraud and abuse issues.
The site contains a brief overview of Medicare fraud, followed by instructions on how beneficiaries can report suspected fraud. It also advises beneficiaries to be suspicious of the following types of providers:
- Home health providers who offer non-medical transportation services or housekeeping as Medicare approved services.
- Physicians who bill Medicare for telephone calls, conferences with the family, or scheduled but not kept appointments.
- Physicians who bill Medicare for routine check-ups.
- Ambulance companies that bill Medicare for routine trips to a doctor’s office.
- Physicians who give the wrong diagnosis on the claim form so Medicare will pay.
- Ambulance companies that bill for trips which are not emergency in nature.
- Home health providers that bill for patients who are not confined to the home.
- Home health providers that bill for Medicare patients who still drive an automobile.
- Suppliers that bill Medicare for medical equipment for beneficiaries in nursing home.
- Hospital providers that bill Medicare for tests beneficiaries received as an inpatient or within 72 hours.
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