Oz Pulls More Medicare Fraud Out From Behind The Curtain
Medicare fraud is rampant whether Democrats want to admit it or not. Which brings up an interesting question. When something is so obvious, why wouldn’t a political party want the graft exposed unless it benefits from it through back channels?
This week, Doctor Oz raided two Medicaid senior daycare centers where two other men had already stolen $120 million from the same programs. He hit Kent Senior Care at 8:30 a.m., and discovered some interesting problems.
The center’s maximum capacity is 70 people, and according to the billing, it looked like the place was filled to capacity every day.
Seniors walked in without signing anything, yet the director insisted that attendance sheets are documented for every visit.
According to Dr. Oz:
“People were just walking in there without signing anything, and then after I showed up and he saw what we were doing with my team, he started collecting these documents to be signed.”
The billing records showed charges for specialized wheelchair transportation, but when Oz looked around, he didn’t see any wheelchairs.
“I don’t see any wheelchairs here,” he said.
The director’s weak explanation was that “probably he just copied and pasted” the billing codes from previous files.
“You’re getting this letter from the U.S. government because we don’t believe you,” Oz told the director.
Every dollar spent on wheelchair codes for patients who don’t use wheelchairs, on pre-filled attendance records, or on seniors paid to show up and play mahjong is a dollar that could have gone to cancer treatment or heart surgery.
Oz asked the director:
“Is that what our federal tax dollars for Medicaid are supposed to go to? Or is it life-saving heart surgery? Or new therapies for cancer?”
The director didn’t have a good answer.
Right.
At another location, Evergreen Adult Day Care, the manager informed Oz that approximately 200 seniors attended on busy days. However. Oz counted approximately 25 people in the room. Then it got worse. When he opened the attendance books, he found that they were dated two days ahead.
Medicaid spending in New York increased more than double since 2013, rising from $55 billion to $116 billion by 2025, with federal taxpayers bearing 60 percent of the cost.
Last month, a daycare owner in Brooklyn was sentenced to over six years in federal prison for orchestrating a $68 million scheme billing Medicaid for care that was never provided.
The scheme consistently involves paying Medicaid recipients cash kickbacks to enroll, then billing the government for services that were never provided. In some instances, outdated billing codes are carelessly copied and pasted.
Federal prosecutors say this has become common in New York’s adult daycare industry.
Oz claimed that individuals linked to organized crime networks, including those related to what he referred to as the “Chinese mafia,” were paying some seniors between $1,000 and $1,200 to take part in fraudulent billing schemes.
He also alleged that the profits from these operations were being used to fund money laundering and human trafficking activities.
“It’s really a clubhouse for crime.”
The raids have given Kathy Hochul a face-saving moment.
She described this week’s crackdown as part of a “massive effort to combat fraud and abuse” in Medicaid, confirming that state health officials participated in the federal operation.
Yes, a “massive effort” that she wanted no part of just a few months ago. In March, Oz challenged Hochul to explain why New York spends over $100 billion a year on Medicaid, 36 percent more per beneficiary than the national average and nearly 80 percent more per resident than the national average.
Then, she called that probe politically targeted.
She is not saying that now because Fox News cameras were inside the building when staff began filling out attendance sheets after Oz walked in, and the sign-in books showed entries for dates that had not yet arrived.
The Trump administration actually wants to stop fraud, not turn their back on it and walk away like Biden’s crew. The “Plandemic” accelerated fraud and emboldened criminals, and they thrive in blue states. Florida has a larger population than New York, but it spends less than half what New York spends on Medicaid.
Democrats hate the idea of any Republican or conservative exposing wrongdoing. Instead of jumping on board and getting involved, they try to portray the criminals as victims and conservatives as persecutors. They’re perfectly content to allow the American public to be victimized so they can cling to some ridiculous woke notion of false superiority.
