Medicare pays out big bucks for questionable treatments

The Wall Street Journal: Confidentiality Cloaks Medicare Abuse
There's something else about Dr. Wayne that doesn't resemble a normal family-practice doctor: his earnings from Medicare, the government insurance program for the elderly and disabled. Dr. Wayne took in more than $1.2 million from Medicare in 2008, according to a person familiar with the matter, a large portion of it from physical therapy. That's more than 24 times the Medicare income of the average family doctor, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Medicare-claims data (Schoofs and Tamman, 12/22).

The Associated Press: Medicare Bilked For Inhaler Drugs In Fla.
A scam tricked Medicare into paying for nearly 10 times more units of an inhaler drug than were available in South Florida, costing taxpayers millions, according to a federal investigation released Wednesday. The scams over an 18-month period are the latest to be pulled off in Miami and its surrounding communities, which are the national epicenter for Medicare fraud (Kennedy, 12/22).