Tom Coburn: “it is estimated that the fraud in New York State is $14 billion a year in Medicaid alone, of which the Federal…”

“it is estimated that the fraud in New York State is $14 billion a year in Medicaid alone, of which the Federal Government pays two-thirds. In 5 years, solving the Medicaid fraud in New York would pay for every savings we have claimed in this whole bill for the next 5 years. Examples: St. Barnabas Health Care System agreed to settle $3.9 million in claims it overcharged Medicare; the Premium Health Care Group, $1.6 million for fraudulent wound-care claims; Michael Clemens, FBI special agent--$1 billion in Medicare fraud in south Florida alone. If you add up what is going on in Medicare and Medicaid, $37.5 billion a year at a minimum is fraud and yet we are trying to save a measly two-tenths of 1 percent in terms of slowing the growth. We haven't gone far enough. For somebody to reject this bill on the fact that we might not meet our obligations on Medicare and Medicaid-- the obligation isn't being met in terms of the oversight of these programs. I wish to spend a few moments talking about Medicaid fraud because it is important for people to know what a poor job we are doing in terms of oversight. Investigators estimate that as much as $18 billion worth of fraud occurs every year in New York alone on Medicaid. That is 5 percent of the total national spending on Medicaid in one State. One New York dentist, Dr. Dolly Rosen, claimed to have performed 991 procedures a day in 2003--991 procedures a day. The New York Medicaid Program consumes $44.5 billion.…”