IG: Fraud Continues To Be Big Issue For Medicare Drug Program
The Health and Human Services Department Inspector General issues critical reports following the recent arrests of 44 pharmacy owners, doctors and others for bilking the program. Meanwhile, traditional Medicare limits telemedicine coverage to certain rural areas despite the growing use of such services by commercial insurers.
NPR/ProPublica:
Fraud Still Plagues Medicare's Prescription Drug Program
Fraud and abuse continue to dog Medicare's popular prescription drug program, despite a bevy of initiatives launched to prevent them, according to two new reports by the inspector general of Health and Human Services. Their release follows the arrests of 44 pharmacy owners, doctors and others, who last week were accused of bilking the program, known as Part D. (Ornstein, 6/23)
Kaiser Health News:
Medicare Slow To Adopt Telemedicine Due To Cost Concerns
Donna Miles didn’t feel like getting dressed and driving to her physician’s office or to a retailer’s health clinic near her Cincinnati home. For several days, she had thought she had thrush, a mouth infection that made her tongue sore and discolored with raised white spots. When Miles, 68, awoke on a wintry February morning and the pain had not subsided, she decided to see a doctor. So she turned on her computer and logged on to www.livehealth.com, a service offered by her Medicare Advantage plan, Anthem BlueCross BlueShield of Ohio. She spoke to a physician, who used her computer’s camera to peer into her mouth and who then sent a prescription to her pharmacy. (Galewitz, 6/23)
In other regulatory news -
Politico Pro:
Both Sides Agree: EEOC Wellness Rule Won’t Work
Two months after the EEOC issued a proposed regulation to clarify when participation in a workplace wellness program is “voluntary” under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, health and legal experts on all sides of the issue say federal policy is no clearer than it was before. (Levine, 6/22)
