The AP (12/24, Kennedy) reported, "While authorities are successfully cracking down on" Florida clinic owners who "play a large role in the fraud overwhelming the national Medicare system," they "disagree over whether prosecutors should go after the patients who get the phony treatments." A "2007 report by the federal government" showed that although "about eight percent of the nation's HIV/AIDS patients live" in Florida, the state "is responsible for 72 percent of Medicare spending on the disease -- mostly for dubious infusion therapies." And, "federal officials have campaigned aggressively against clinic operators." But, people "who keep these mills churning -- the patients -- remain free to move from...scam to scam." Kirk Ogrosky, deputy chief of the US Justice Department's criminal fraud section, advocates for arresting patients, arguing that "unless patients are prosecuted," the effort "will not have a true long-term impact." Meanwhile, Miami US Attorney R. Alexander Acosta "believes it's better to spend his prosecutors' limited time and resources going after the providers."
Copyright © 2008 by Custom Briefings | 11190 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 130 | Reston, VA 20191