Letters.CUT FRAUD AND WASTE TO LOWER MEDICAID COSTS Editor: In response to the article on Medicaid in the June magazine, there is no question that these are challenging times, and states are struggling to meet ballooning health care costs. In my opinion, one of the main culprits for the trend here and nationwide is the fraud, waste and abuse associated with provider billing. My experiences in the early 1980s led me to the conclusion that there was something we, as legislators, weren't fully grasping grasping a similar equine neurosis to windsucking; the horse grasps a fixed object with its teeth, but does not swallow air. : Why weren't we requiring explanation of benefits forms to be distributed to all Medicaid clients? Medicare already does this, so do most private health insurance providers. Why not Medicaid? Providing these forms, with the added incentive of a 10 percent cash award, to those clients with adjudicated claims of provider overbilling would help plug the holes in the system. For the past two decades, I have consistently filed this legislation. Although estimates put the implementation cost at $1 million, the bill would save our commonwealth hundreds of millions of dollars. A few years ago after following up on a constituent concern, I was able to uncover $3 million worth of fraud, waste and abuse of the Medicaid system in Massachusetts. Two different constituents of mine in past years have called me to report charges of overbilling by providers after reading the forms. The first complaint resulted in a $1 million fine of a Medicare provider. The second one resulted in a warning to a doctor. The problem of Medicaid's skyrocketing costs appears to lie with the people who bill the state, not the clients. Are there other legislators out there who might have data and suggestions showing how explanation forms and a cash incentive to report fraud would affect Medicaid costs to states? Marie J. Parente Representative Massachusetts ORGAN DONORS organ donor Transplantation A person/cadaver that donates his/her organ(s) to a recipient GET FAMILY MEDICAL LEAVE Editor: I am pleased to announce that Maine has joined the list of states in your February magazine that have acted to promote organ donation Organ donation is the removal of the tissues of the human body from a person who has recently died, or from a living donor, for the purpose of transplanting or grafting them into other persons. . Our new law provides the opportunity to use family medical leave benefits while donating a lifesaving organ, removing what the New England New England, name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States—Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been so named by Capt. Organ Bank organ bank Transplant medicine A repository, usually shared by multiple hospitals for long-term storage of certain tissues destined for transplantation–eg, acellular bone fragments, BM, corneas. Cf UNOS. calls one of the most significant obstacles confronting a potential donor. Legislation such as LD 1945 is simply an added tool that makes organ donation easier. Even the opponents said the impact on businesses would be minimal at worst. My only disappointment was that bone marrow bone marrow, soft tissue filling the spongy interiors of animal bones. Red marrow is the principal organ that forms blood cells in mammals, including humans (see blood). In children, the bones contain only red marrow. donors were not included. Statistics show that people sometimes die while waiting for donated do·nate v. do·nat·ed, do·nat·ing, do·nates v.tr. To present as a gift to a fund or cause; contribute. v.intr. To make a contribution to a fund or cause. organs. Nationally, there are more than 79,000 patients on waiting lists for lifesaving organs. And each year 6,000 of them die. Despite the Maine Transplant transplant or graft Partial or complete organ or other body part removed from one site and attached at another. It may come from the same or a different person or an animal. One from the same person—most often a skin graft—is not rejected. Program's tremendous success, there are currently more people in the state awaiting transplants Transplants are an American punk rock/rap rock supergroup. They formed in 1999 when Tim Armstrong of the band Rancid played his friend and roadie Rob Aston some beats he had made using Pro Tools and asked Rob if he would consider contributing lyrics. than there are available organs. This law should help alleviate that dilemma. Boyd Morley Representative Maine |
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