Medicare has been hiring "integrity contractors" to perform data work similar to that done by Maryland and the Journal, says Richard Kusserow, a former HHS inspector general and now head of a private consulting firm. While he has reservations about releasing raw billing records, "I'm really big on the idea of using these tools to identify these bad actors," Kusserow said.
The $350 million in last year's Affordable Care Act to fight medical fraud over a decade includes money for data mining.
Medical rip-offs now rival cocaine and marijuana sales as America's most profitable crime. The evidence to find bad guys sits on computers in Woodlawn. Perhaps the government will get better at digging into it. But as with everything else in an open society, it needs help from news organizations and the public.
As Grassley said on Capitol Hill last month: "A taxpayer dollar spent on Medicare isn't any different than the public's right to know about a taxpayer dollar spent on defense programs."
