Released: June 20, 2008

Medicare pays, even if providers do not

Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post (Free Registration)

Health-care providers are allowed to collect millions of dollars in federal Medicare payments each year despite owing the government more than $2 billion in back taxes, congressional investigators said yesterday.

The Government Accountability Office found that more than 27,000 nursing homes, hospitals, physicians and other providers flouted the tax system while collecting Medicare fees in 2006. That represented 6 percent of all providers in a Medicare program that served 43.2 million people and paid out $402 billion in benefits that year. 

Read Full Article: Medicare pays, even if providers do not