It is estimated that 7 million Americans abuse prescription drugs every year. That is more than the number who are abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy, and inhalants combined.

Find out what works, do more of that.

I think, again, our current judgment is that we think that more comprehensive drug utilization review is the best strategy right now.

So the financial incentives might be working just the opposite.

It is hard to believe that we find ourselves looking, instead of at a sea of black ink where we were 10, 11 years ago, at a sea of red ink.

I would encourage you to at least include those two areas, law enforcement and pharmacies.

how do we harness market forces in this situation to reduce this kind of illegal behavior? Or can we?

I think it is critical that we put into place concrete steps to stop this form of abuse and waste.

the legislation contains a number of ideas that I think directly impact the diversion of drugs from the Medicare prescription drug program.

I think there is a bit of a moral imperative here for us to get better results for less money.

We are not interested in process. We are interested in having the ability to actually measure results.

All right. Good. Thanks.

we have drilled down on how the Federal Government wastes millions annually maintaining properties and buildings we neither want nor need.

Unfortunately, too often criminals have figured out how to use Medicare and Medicaid for their own gain.

I think starting next year Part D plan sponsors would have to confirm that a prescription was written by a valid physician.

Could we have an unintended consequence here?

It has been quite a good hearing, I think.

Could you talk further with us about that figure? How did GAO come up with it?

Even if it were four times higher, that would be a heck of a lot money. That would be like $600 million in a year.

So I believe it is important that in any fraud prevention program--and I testify across Congress on these things--you have to have some consequences at the end of the day for people that might deter them.

Is there any way to factor in those costs to arrive at the true taxpayer price of this abuse?

My boys are 21 and 23. They are pretty sure that Medicare or Social Security are not going to be there for them.

the funding, I think the Affordable Care Act provided some solid funding in the anti-fraud area

Give us an example of that.

Thanks very much for that statement. Thanks very much for the work that backs it up.