Last night’s 60 Minutes had an investigation into the $60 billion-per-year Medicare-fraud industry, which has replaced the illegal drug business as the No. 1 organized crime in South Florida. Medicare fraud sounds boring, but it’s actually totally insane! Steve Kroft interviewed this guy who looks like a cross between Disco Stu and the Wolverine who made tons of money off of it and is now in prison, and he explained how anyone can make millions of our tax money just by setting up a fake medical-supply company or pharmacy and billing Medicare, which, because of a crazy law, has to pay out all claims within 30 days of submission and doesn’t have the time or manpower to investigate anything. Watching this, we actually had the thought that Medicare would be better run by those horrible murderous insurance-company executives, or at least something in between. Also, we finally understand the existence in NYC of those strange tiny pharmacies with really old products in the window that never seem to actually be open for business.
[CBS News]
