Quote Originally Posted by BanginJimmy
From other reading I have done about 80% of the fraud is small medical services companies that bill for several million then are gone in a matter of a couple months. Imagine how much more common that will become when there is a shortage of providers.
Thats pretty much what I was thinking, do you have a source for that?

So it seems like a reform of the billing practices could eliminate a good deal of fraud and waste from the Medicare system. I'm sure its the same way with Medicaid too, regulating the billing side of it will stop some of the leaks.

Also, if we rolled Medicare, Medicaid, VA, WIC, and public health insurance into one organization, the overhead might be lower. These organizations are all in the Dept of Health and Human Services (except maybe the VA), and already fall under the umbrella of the Public Health Service (PHS), so having one PHS instead of several different and seperate services might make for lower administrative overhead.