How to brazenly steal $100B from Medicare and Medicaid

Re:How to brazenly steal $100B from Medicare and Medicaid by twoodfin on Thursday March 09, 2023 @12:31PM (#35083908)

This is a good estimate to remember when the argument is made that Medicare and Medicaid are superior to private payers because they have much lower administrative overhead.

Yes, if you are willing to tolerate mid-single-digit fraud rates—cost billed to the taxpayer—you can indeed lower your administration burden.

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Re:How to brazenly steal $100B from Medicare and Medicaid by pnutjam on Thursday March 09, 2023 @02:49PM (#35085717)

You know what, I'll take 6% fraud in place of 15% to 30% administrative costs.

https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hpb20220909.830296/...

Too many people think they are being smart with money when in reality they are just being petty and wasteful.

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Re:How to brazenly steal $100B from Medicare and Medicaid by twoodfin on Thursday March 09, 2023 @03:20PM (#35086125)

Many of those costs are borne by Medicare/Medicaid as well as private payers:

Costs from administrative activities are best defined as what is “left over” after accounting for clinical activities.

The hospital president's salary is paid by Medicare/Medicaid, too. Same with the armies of medical coders.

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Re:How to brazenly steal $100B from Medicare and Medicaid by pnutjam on Friday March 10, 2023 @01:10PM (#35098437)

Wait... I keep hearing that Medicaid/Medicare don't pay enough, now they are paying for all the overage stuff?

Anyway, those quotes were for the internal management of the company, not the overhead at offices or hospitals.

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Re:How to brazenly steal $100B from Medicare and Medicaid by rootusrootus on Thursday March 09, 2023 @03:23PM (#35086162)

> You know what, I'll take 6% fraud in place of 15% to 30% administrative costs.

Not to mention that private insurance companies aren't immune to fraud either.

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