Medicare Payments to Dead Doctors

Ethical Challenges in Medicare Scam

In the period from 2000 to 2007, more than 478,000 claims were filed with Medicare in the names of between 16,500 and 18,200 dead physicians. As a result, the Medicare program-which insures the elderly and disabled-paid at least $92.8 million in fraudulent claims. The actual amount paid could be higher since the study which uncovered the fraud only looked at physicians who had been dead for at least one year. The study was conducted under the auspices of the investigations panel of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Zhang, 2008).

Live physicians are also associated with Medicare fraud. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that 27,000 health-care providers-including individuals and

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