Why does health care cost so much in the United States? Is it because of medical malpractice lawsuits like conservatives say? Is it because of a profit-driven system like the liberals say? Or is the truth actually much more obvious? Could it be health care fraud that is driving up the cost of health care in the United States?
While both liberals and conservatives make excellent points, the role of health care fraud is a major factor in driving up the cost of medicine. Consider what an insurance policy is. It’s a shared resource between policyholders to pick up the costs of their medical coverage. Everyone must pay into it for it to be solvent and then the fund is distributed based on need. It is the capitalist’s approach to communism: A shared resource offered by private companies to collect and hold revenue and then disperse it based on need.
So, if I go to the doctor with a pain in my arm, and say, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” And then the doctor replies by saying, “We’ll have to run a battery of tests to determine whether or not you have epilepsy or any of a number of other chronic conditions that require chronic care, perpetual testing, and will make me and my partners hundreds of thousands of dollars while the patient never sees a bill and the whole thing is paid for by their insurance company.”
Obviously, that approach would drive up the cost of health care significantly, is illegal, immoral, and breaches the medical ethics that Western medicine is built on. It is, however, making doctors rich.
Sober homes and substance abuse facilities
Among the worst abusers of kickbacks, patient brokering, health care fraud, and other types of fraud that drive up costs for everyone, sober homes are making a name for themselves as the cream of the crop. Sober homes allied with substance abuse treatment centers will funnel patients back and forth between the services bilking their insurance companies (usually Medicare or Medicaid) of millions of dollars. If the patient ever does recover, it would be bad because that would constitute a loss of income for the sober home. The sober home is thus in the position of benefiting from the drug abuser’s failure to remain clean, and is paid every time they forcibly send one of their wards into a substance abuse center.
138 defendants nationwide are now facing charges related to health care fraud in the form of patient brokering, kickbacks, and billing for unnecessary medical services. The estimated loss for the insurers is about $1.4 billion, and these are only the ones we know about.
Talk to a West Palm Beach Criminal Defense Attorney
If you have been charged with health care fraud, you will be navigating the federal justice system. You’ll need an attorney capable of defending clients from federal charges. Call the West Palm Beach criminal attorneys at The Skier Law Firm, P.A. today and we can begin preparing your defense immediately.
Resource:
justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/national-health-care-fraud-enforcement-action-results-charges-over-308-million-intended