Protecting yourself from health care fraud

the long version

Health care fraud is often not reported, yet it is widespread and results in staggering economic consequences. It is estimated that actual losses due to fraud range between $80 and $160 billion. Medicare and Medicaid programs alone lost more than $23 billion dollars last year due to simple errors -- and a few dishonest individuals. In dollar amounts, this means that $1 of every $7 spent on Medicare and $1 of every $10 spent on Medicaid is wasted. In other words, this money is never spent in the way it was intended to provide for health care for older persons, people with disabilities, and families.