Ryan's Medicare Vouchers! (First, The Old Suck Points To The Chair, Then Nods Off.

[mascale]

Timing is Everything in the Ryan Medicare Elimination Plan!

First, nothing happens.

Second. Vouchers get phased in!

Third. Medicare Gets Phased Out Completely.

Fourth. The Vouchers remain At the Same Amount Every Year!

Paul Ryan's Original Medicare Plan Ends Medicare, Period | ThinkProgress

Anyone knows that there are MediCare supplements on the market even now!

The idea of Ryan's MediCare plan is to make the vouchers worthless, so that "efficient market mechanisms" can even come up with premium plans--maybe even with deductions straight from the beneift checks!

YouTube is going be like so clogged up for the next two months!

Romney-Ryan have a better idea(?)!

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
(Many Grandfathers Seek Out Ice Floes--If Any--And Then Go On To Meet Great Spirit(?)! Maybe Meet Fear-Crazed Penguins Instead. . . .Going For The Floe(?)!)

 

[waltky]

Texas hospital caught in Medicare fraud...

FBI arrests historic Houston hospital's CEO, son, 5 others
Thursday, October 4, 2012 | Accused of bilking Medicare program of $158 million

After 30 years as CEO of one of Houston's most historic hospitals, Earnest Gibson III, along with his son and five others, was arrested on Thursday - part a national Medicare fraud sweep involving $430 million in bogus billings and 91 health care providers in seven states. If the allegations against the 68-year-old Gibson are true, that he and others at the hospital bilked the Medicare program of $158 million over a period of more than seven years, it could prove lethal for Riverside, once the primary hospital for the city's black population. Gibson and his son Earnest Gibson IV, 35, were charged with 13 counts: conspiracy to commit health care fraud; conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay and receive health care kickbacks; one count of money laundering and ten counts of violating the anti-kickback statute.

They are among dozens of individuals who were arrested or surrendered Thursday as indictments were unsealed nationwide. The Gibsons are accused of teaming up with Riverside's previously indicted assistant administrator, Mohammad Khan, who pleaded guilty in the scheme in February. Together, the indictment alleges, the three created a plan that paid up to $3,200 in cash to "patient recruiters." The recruiters, in turn, would pay Houston-area group-home owners to send patients to Riverside's satellite clinics offering "partial hospitalization programs" for the mentally ill.

Son blames employee

"In Texas alone, these indictments say these alleged defrauders, including doctors and nurses, submitted $258.3 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare," said U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady. The Woodlands Republican - along with Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, and Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos - contacted Medicare authorities three years ago about explosive fraud in Houston. Gibson has been president and CEO of the hospital since 1982. His son told the Chronicle in July that the hospital, which was the Houston Negro Hospital until 1961, was being penalized for one rogue employee: Khan. "These are people who need help," the younger Gibson said. "The Medicare fraud team is fraud themselves. It's not like I'm doing what Dr. Khan was doing." Although licensed as a general hospital by the Texas Department of State Health Services, Riverside's client base is mostly the mentally ill or patients with substance abuse problems.

The older Gibson told the Chronicle earlier this year that $60 million had been paid to Riverside and its clinics by Medicare in the last five years. According to the indictments, Medicare-eligible patients were supposedly lured to Riverside's programs with cigarettes, food and coupons redeemable in the hospital's on-site "Country Store." The items in the store, according to a price sheet, cost from $2 to $30 and included a variety of goods - from Kleenex and candy bars to radios and disposable cameras. Partial hospitalization clinics offer an intensive, five-day-a-week counseling program designed to avoid costly, overnight psychiatric stays. According to prosecutors, the clinics, including Devotions Care Solutions, run by the younger Gibson, filed claims using Riverside's Medicare provider number. The claims, the indictment stated, "were not medically necessary and, in some cases, not provided."

$46.2 million in dispute

 

[mascale]

ObamaCare now has caps on payments to profiteers. That is the famous $700.0 bil. that even came up again in the Frenzy-of-Wednesday-Even-There-in-Denver.

Romney managed to foist off a 50% tax-payer: As though that was the rate that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett pay. Romney himself only pays 14% in taxes, and that should really be only 13% in taxes. He can say that he paid a little more, just like in the Mormon Law of Consecration(?)! Actually, he really paid a whole lot less!

The Romneys are famously Mormon. It is simply not clear that they want to pay for stuff, at all!

Not paying for MediCare is just another example of the brand: Of the Romney Insanity! Then even more important, even than that: There is a 20% tax cut, with Congress left to cut exemptions, and deductions, and their throats, and those of their first born(?)! Anyone sees the making of a Romney Insanity Agenda! These two will see to it: That nobody pays for anything--especially if elected(?). . .or something(?)!

Any money these two spend goes to the Department of Defense, and to those Contractors, easily familiar--as the already prosperous--with apparently a new version of just how to make a grown Mormon sigh(?)!

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
(The Olympics In the Middle of Nowhere, Even, Now a Legend of the West! Judge Roy Bean even famous Legend Of The West! Shoot at one another, then sit in the jail cell--and let the gifties flow in! Then go out and become a judge(?). . .clearly, magically!)

 

[waltky]

Medicare ID theft victims SOL...

Medicare won't issue new IDs to identity-theft victims
October 10. 2012 WASHINGTON -- More than a quarter-million Medicare beneficiaries are potential victims of identity theft and hampered in getting health care benefits because the government won't issue new IDs, according to an investigation report released today.

Medicare officials say it's too expensive and too many agencies are involved to reissue those numbers to patients victimized by identity theft — about 284,000 beneficiaries, according to a report by the Department of Health and Human Service's inspector general. Beneficiary numbers are directly connected to a patient's Social Security number, and the government is unable to create a new Social Security number for a patient whose Medicare identity has been stolen, according to the report, which was obtained by USA TODAY.

And beneficiaries can do little more than report abuse of their beneficiary numbers because the government does not provide them with updates about investigations or amend their records with correct billing information. That, investigators say, slows down access to care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) "should mitigate the damage of medical identity theft by ensuring that beneficiaries retain their access to services if their Medicare numbers have been misused by others," the report states.

Investigators suggested that the CMS, which administers Medicare, place an indicator in breached records or records known to have been used fraudulently so claims processors know when a legitimate claim should go through. The agency agreed to consider that suggestion, the report said. The report also said the government should find a way to issue new numbers, even if it means moving away from using Social Security numbers. Investigators also found that though the government has created a database that includes the 284,000 breached or stolen beneficiary numbers, contractors have not received guidance about what to do with that list. In some cases, contractors continue to send out government checks even after the numbers have been compromised.

The government said the system is being fixed now. Medicare should also correct beneficiaries' billing records when fraudulent activity has occurred, investigators recommended, but the CMS disagreed. "Our major concern is that CMS's adjustment of beneficiary billing records could have a negative impact on criminal and civil prosecutions and on the underlying integrity of the Medicare claims processing system," wrote Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator for CMS. In 2011, the government recovered a record-breaking $4.1 billion in health care fraud money. Between 2009 and 2011, it collected $7.20 for every dollar spent on fighting fraud -- a jump of $5.10 for every dollar spent between 1997 and 2008, according to inspector general reports.

MORE