Beneficiaries Urged to Help Fight Medicare Fraud

The government estimates that it loses some $60 billion a year to
Medicare fraud and waste, and as it gears up to launch its giant health care
reform program to provide affordable coverage for every American, putting a
stop to this is at the top of the agenda. One of the ways Medicare officials
hope to do this is by turning the 50 million beneficiaries of the senior health
insurance program into fraud fighters. This summer, Medicare redoubled its
efforts to get them involved by redesigning a claims statement, known as the
Medicare Summary Notice, with larger print and a streamlined format. The goal
is to have seniors pore over these quarterly statements, now arriving in mailboxes,
to find errors. Medicare maintains a website to explain what to look for and has a
hotline for telephone inquiries (1-800-MEDICARE). There are also private
efforts, like AARP's "decoder" pages, that teach
recipients how to find mistakes.

Source/more: Reuters