$60 billion would provide a lot of health care to the people who need it!

The candidates all are talking about making the health care system available to everyone. I wonder if any of them have considered that a lot of tax dollars are already being handed over to crooks scamming the current system providing free healthcare to the general public? Some estimate that this costs the taxpayers up to $60 billion a year.

$60 billion would go a long way to helping people, who need medical attention and can't afford it.

Carrie Johnson of the Washington Post writes:

All it took to bilk the federal government out of $105 million was a laptop computer.

From her Mediterranean-style townhouse, a high school dropout named Rita Campos Ramirez orchestrated what prosecutors call the largest health-care fraud by one person. Over nearly four years, she electronically submitted more than 140,000 Medicare claims for unnecessary equipment and services. She used the proceeds to finance big-ticket purchases, including two condominiums and a Mercedes-Benz.

And while law enforcement efforts are admirable in going after this, it is is being described as a game of "Whack a Mole."

The article sums up the problem rather nicely:

A critical aspect of the problem is that Medicare, the health program for the elderly and the disabled, automatically pays the vast majority of the bills it receives from companies that possess federally issued supplier numbers. Computer and audit systems now in place to detect problems generally focus on overbilling and unorthodox medical treatment rather than fraud, scholars say.

"You should be able to spot emerging problems quickly and address them before they do much harm," said Malcolm Sparrow, a Harvard professor and author of "License to Steal," a book about health-care fraud that advocates for greater federal vigilance. "It's a miserable pattern, a cycle of neglect followed by a painful and dramatic intervention."

Southern Florida was targeted by the authorities because a large amount of money seemed to be going up in smoke there, according to the Washington Post article.

Miami became a focus for Medicare fraud after investigators realized that a good portion of the medical suppliers weren't even open during normal business hours and didn't even have working telephone numbers (?). Even worse, the Government Accountability Office has been calling out that these programs had weak oversight for about a dozen years (?).

Southern Califonia is also one of the targets in the latest efforts to correct this problem:

The strike force recently established a base in Los Angeles, another area rife with fraud. Prosecutors announced criminal charges last month against two medical equipment company owners who are accused of falsely billing Medicare more than $2 million. Plans call for a similar rollout this fall in Houston, another potential fraud hot spot.

The political candidates can promise free health care for everybody -- but unless we start exercising a lot more due diligence spending this money -- any system is likely to go broke in a short time. I'm all for better health care for all, but we need to start making sure the money is being spent on the people receiving the care.

Spending even more money on law enforcement task forces to combat a problem described as a game of "Whack a Mole" isn't very proactive, either.

What is needed is a little more common sense in running these programs. If the programs are this mismanaged, I would propose investigating the enablers of this problem (the program managers) and find out why they are wasting so much money. By doing this, we might start spending the money where it should be spent, or on people who need medical attention.

This might go a long way to having the means to provide care to the people, who the money was earmarked for in the first place!

Washington Post article, here.

Why the GAO report on Identity Theft might show that disclosure works!

I came across a thoughtful post about the recent GAO report on identity theft and data breaches written by Dissent, who blogs at the Chronicles of Dissent. This is a well-written analysis, and after reading it, I was inspired to think a few things through.

In Dissents own words:

The June GAO report, Data Breaches Are Frequent, but Evidence of Resulting Identity Theft Is Limited; However, the Full Extent Is Unknown [GAO-07-737 (pdf)] was released today.

Looking through it, it is clear that they relied heavily on data and statistics provided by Attrition.org, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the Identity Theft ResourceCenter, and reports obtained from NY and NC under FOIA by Chris Walsh.

Although it is encouraging that that the government is actually using the data that these organizations and individuals have worked so hard to compile, some of the implications suggested by the GAO report are troubling from the perspective of a privacy advocate.

Of note, Dissent is affiliated with PogoWasRight.org, which is affiliated with Attrition.org, one of the sources tracking the never-ending saga of data breaches.

I'm going to link to the full article, which I think is a valuable read for anyone interested in this subject. Then I will give my personal opinion.

Chronicles of Dissent post, here.

Identity theft seems to a growing problem, at least whenever anyone takes the time to track the statistics. If this is true, then why would known data breaches result in very few cases of identity theft?

The answer is simple, when a data breach is exposed, it isn't as easy to use!

When a data breach occurs, the human element (compromised) normally takes a lot of measures to protect their information. In fact, an entire industry (identity theft protection services) has come about, which is automating the process. This makes it harder, and probably, a lot more dangerous to use the information.

Everyone involved in studying this admits there are a lot of compromises no one knows about. These unknown compromises are probably, where most of the information being used to steal identities is coming from. After all, they don't want to waste their time on information that won't work, or even worse, put them at risk of getting caught.

One of the reasons the problem is growing is that not many of them are getting caught (my opinion).

At best, once a breach is known, someone is going to have to hold on to the information for later use (after people and organizations let their guard down).

Perhaps, these highly publicized data breaches have stopped the information from being used? If this is the case, it's certainly a good argument for mandatory notification.

In closing, our personal information has been put in too many places, that don't seem to be protected very well. The reason for this is pretty simple, also. There is a tremendous amount of money being made from selling it to market products.

As long as our information is being used for a profit and isn't being protected properly, it's only fair that those profiting should be held liable for all the notifications and clean-up.

Of course, I'm also in favor of going after the people compromising the information with a little more gusto. Since this costs money, I have no doubt, who should be helping to pay for that, also.

*Update to article 7/10/07 - Dissent owns PogoWasRight and is no longer affiliated with Attrition.org. He was kind enough to add a comment to this post, which can be viewed at the bottom of this post, here.

No one can ever be certain of anything until things become more transparent. This is why I often add that some of my thoughts are purely opinion, based on my observations of this phenomenon. I am always open to considering all points of view, and in fact, learn a lot by doing so.

(Courtesy of Flickr)

How much of our Social Security money is benefiting former illegal aliens in Mexico?

With predictions that Social Security might be bankrupt before many of us ever receive any benefits, money potentially being given to people not entitled to it, bothers some people.

Dr. Jerome R. Corsi (WorldNetDaily.com) just did a very eye-opening analysis of the problem, where he states:

Amid the U.S. government's acknowledgment of rampant document and benefit fraud, the Federal Reserve is wiring 26,000 Social Security payments every month to Mexicans south of the border.

Officials with the Federal Reserve and Social Security Administration insist payments are not going to illegal aliens but admit they cannot be certain. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has launched a new task force to address the "growing" problem of benefit fraud, including in the Social Security Administration.

I like the official statement that no payments are going to illegal aliens, but they can't be certain?It seems to me that if they were certain, they might HAVE do SOMETHING about it.

I sometimes like to examine the money trail, which is what anyone wanting to determine fraud should follow, and according to the article:

According to the Federal Reserve, in 2005 the amount of funds transferred to Mexico reached more than $30 billion, up from $16.6 billion in 2004. The remittance market to Mexico has experienced double-digit growth in recent years.

Even scarier, was what is termed a totalization agreement with Mexico, that Social Security refused to release until forced to by an advocate group for senior citizens:

As WND previously reported, after refusing to release the document for three and a half years, the Social Security Administration in January finally made public a totalization agreement that "would allow millions of illegal Mexican workers to draw billions of dollars from the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund."

The disclosure was forced by a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the TREA Senior Citizens League, a non-partisan seniors advocacy group.

This hasn't been signed into effect by President Bush, but it could be done without congressional approval.

Dr. Corsi sums up this analysis using factual data from the GAO:

In September 2003, the U.S. General Accounting Office estimated a Social Security totalization agreement with Mexico would cost $78 million in the first year and would grow to $650 billion (in constant 2002 dollars) in 2050.

The GAO admitted even this estimate was low given that the totalization agreement provides an additional incentive for millions more Mexicans to enter and work in the United States.

Dr. Corsi's highly interesting analysis (I highly recommend reading the entire article), here.

So far as the officials, who aren't certain if fraud is occurring, they might want to consider the amount of benefits fraud, recently uncovered in the Katrina and Rita hurricanes. Initially, officials seemed to be in denial (not certain) about how much of it happened there, also. After the GAO did a little digging, they seemed to find quite a bit of it - and rumor has it - they aren't finished finding all of it.

Benefit fraud is a huge problem, and it costs us all in the form of higher taxes. It also takes away from the funds available to pay honest people, who are entitled to receive them.

Here is another post, I wrote about the scope of this problem in a limited area (Southern California):

Los Angeles Grand Jury Calls Child Care Program an ATM for Thieves

The official ICE press release about the government task force looking into this problem can be seen, here.

Has a lot of money been lost because of fraud, waste and abuse in Iraq?

There is no doubt that the war in Iraq has cost the taxpayer's a lot of money. Many brave young and women have even paid a greater price.

Jim Fry (Voice of America) is reporting:

"Government auditors told Congress Thursday that waste and fraud in the reconstruction of Iraq have been rampant. They predict they will uncover losses in the billions of dollars. Key Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee demanded an accounting within two months."

Voice of America story, here.

There are going to be some, who claim that this is political posturing for for the "upcoming" presidential elections, but there is no doubt - we need to take a hard look at what's been going on.

If fraud has been a problem in Iraq - and hard evidence is brought forward - the guilty should punished, severely. After all, many of our nation's finest (the brave men and women I referred to above) have paid with their "blood" for justice in Iraq.

They deserve some (justice), also!

Should this turn out to be "political posturing," the voters (who by now should be getting tired of special interest/pork barrel politics) should make their voices be heard on election day.

I will be one of the people, who vote every election, watching the results of this, carefully!

More Allegations of Money Wasted in Katrina

Recently, I blogged about - whether or not - we would ever discover how much money was wasted in the Katrina disaster. Unfortunately, this statement is turning out to be more accurate that I would have liked it to have been.

Hope Yen of the AP is reporting:

Federal investigators have already determined the Bush administration squandered $1 billion on fraudulent disaster aid to individuals after the 2005 storm. Now they are shifting their attention to the multimillion dollar contracts to politically connected firms that critics have long said are a prime area for abuse.

In January, investigators will release the first of several audits examining more than $12 billion in Katrina contracts. The charges range from political favoritism to limited opportunities for small and minority-owned firms, which initially got only 1.5 percent of the total work.

Government officals (past and present) are now alleging that the dollar amount wasted could exceed $2 billion.

AP story (courtesy of the Washington Post), here.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out and what evidence is brought to light as a result of this.

The sad truth is that there are still a lot of people suffering as a result of this disaster. And it doesn't make sense that they should be when this kind of money was available.

Here is a post, I wrote about the results of a recent GAO (Government Accountability Office) audit:

Will We Ever Discover the True Losses in the Katrina Disaster?

Will We Ever Discover the True Losses in the Katrina Disaster?

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued another report stating that the fraud losses in Katrina and Rita are a lot higher than previously disclosed to the public.

The report states:

• Almost $20 million in double payments was paid to people claiming damage to the same property in both hurricanes (Katrina and Rita).
• Almost $17 million in improper or fraudulent "rental assistance" payments given to people already receiving free housing.
• 500 foreign students received $3 million in aid.
• $156,000 was given to foreign workers on temporary visas.

Sadly enough, the report indicates that FEMA disabled a system (edit check in NEMIS) that would have caught people using duplicate information (social security numbers) to make claims in both hurricanes. In five of the six cases examined, the claimants didn't even have to provide proof that they had conducted repairs after receiving money for the first claim.

I have no personal experience with "edit check in NEMIS," but computers run pretty fast in today's world, and it doesn't make sense to me that an entire system designed to detect fraud was disabled?

Didn't we have enough personnel to do a manual check when duplicate social security numbers were noted? And even if this were so - why didn't FEMA take action (themselves) to identify the issues before the GAO investigated?

The use of other people's social security numbers is nothing new and probably could have been anticipated, fairly easily.

There is also a lot of missing equipment. The report shows that 34 percent of the property purchased to aid efforts has either been lost, or stolen. In the case of 2o flat bottom boats purchased - only two remain missing - however twice the retail price was paid to a vendor, who also failed to pay for 11 of the boats he sold to the government.

Even scarier, the report indicates that FEMA overstated the amount of found property reported in July hearings to Congress. This was based on an e-mail sent by DHS (Department of Homeland Security) on the eve of the hearings.

FEMA's estimate of the monetary impact of fraud in Katrina was $290 million, however if one is to believe the GAO report, the real losses surpass $1 billion.

With the stories that surfaced about prison inmates making claims and stolen information (social security numbers) being used in claims for addresses that were vacant lots - it's entirely possible that there is additional fraud that hasn't, or never will be discovered.

There were also a lot of stories of charities being defrauded and even fake charities being set-up. The GAO report only addresses the fraud losses incurred by the government.

GAO report, here.

Report Fraud, Waste and Abuse to the GAO, here.

FraudNET (Report Fraud, Waste and Abuse)

One might come to the conclusion that we wasted a lot of money on Katrina, but this is far from being true. In fact, a lot of people are still suffering as a result of these disasters, and the truth is that the money could have been used for better purposes.

I plan to explore this more in detail in future posts, but for now, I'll pass on a site that is devoted to the real victims in these disasters:

Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane & Disaster Recovery