Political Quotes

“I am delighted to join my friend, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Aging, Senator Nelson, in introducing legislation to help combat fraud in the Medicare Program. We are introducing the Stop Schemes and Crimes Against Medicare and Seniors Act, or the Stop SCAMS Act. As Senator Nelson has described, at our hearings earlier this year we heard absolutely appalling testimony from a woman who had to endure painful, 7-hour-long series of infusions for a disease she did not have just because her doctor was bilking the Medicare Program. Imagine a physician who would do that, who would subject a vulnerable patient to the anxiety of thinking she had a disease she did not have and then treat her for a disease she did not have just to collect Medicare dollars. It really was appalling. For decades the Government Accountability Office--GAO--has identified Medicare as being at high risk for improper payments, abuse, and fraud. In the year 2012 Medicare reported that it had lost more than $44 billion in improper payments due to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement--and that estimate may well be too low. Think what we could do with $44 billion to improve the quality of health care and the coverage we are providing to our seniors or to reduce our unsustainable national debt. This is simply unacceptable.…”