Medicare billings tracked to 14 dead doctors here

By Monifa Thomas

They might be dead -- but the Medicare ID numbers of 14 Chicago area doctors were still being used to bill the government-run health program.

In the latest example of health care fraud, a U.S. Senate subcommittee found what investigators estimated could be as much as $92 million in fraudulent Medicare claims nationwide. Medical suppliers submitted Medicare reimbursement claims that were based on prescriptions from doctors who had been dead at least 12 months, the Senate Homeland Security investigations subcommittee found.

The Senate panel studied claims of 1,500 deceased doctors and found the 14 Chicago area doctors had their ID numbers used to bill Medicare for more than $3,000 between 2000 and 2007.

Based on the sample group studied, the panel says Medicare paid from $60 million to $92 million in fraudulent claims involving dead doctors during those years.

"The failure to reject these claims raises questions about who at Medicare is safeguarding taxpayer dollars and why basic protections are not in place," Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who chairs the Senate subcommittee, told a congressional hearing.

A 2001 probe by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found similar abuses. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services promised to make changes after that report, but the Senate panel found that the reforms -- which included issuing new identification numbers to doctors -- didn't work.