Andy Harris: “The idea is okay. This is all part of the puzzle. The Senior Medicare Patrol is a part of the puzzle. But, again, my…”

“The idea is okay. This is all part of the puzzle. The Senior Medicare Patrol is a part of the puzzle. But, again, my problem with this amendment is not that this program doesn't have some value. It is from where it takes the money. It makes the judgment that the other things in that pot of fraud control-- because that is the pot it comes out of. It doesn't say that this fraud control program is so important that we are going to look into some other part of HHS to take those dollars. It says that the other parts of fraud control are not as important. Madam Chair, part of this money goes, for instance, to Department of Justice special attorneys who actually have to prosecute the cases. It is nice to find fraud, but if we don't have money to prosecute the cases, then we have a problem. Again, this is the wishful thinking that we can just create all kinds of programs and that it doesn't make a difference where the money comes from. But it does because this $2 million comes out of some other fraud control somewhere. That is my concern. I don't know that we have the knowledge to know that this fraud control actually yields more in terms of catching fraud and getting fraud moneys back than other uses of this account. That is why, again, I applaud the idea. Let's train everybody to look. We know that fraud in Medicare and Medicaid is huge. The American taxpayer deserves to catch all the fraud. I am just not sure this is the best way to spend our fraud dollars.…”