To the editor: The figures introduced by Medicare and Medicaid Companies Administrator Mehmet Oz and Deputy Administrator and Chief Working Officer Kim Brandt are spectacular, however don’t present the total image (“Medicare’s new method to halting fraud is paying off,” July 9). In California, a part of the administration’s tactic was to pause funding that affected all hospice suppliers — for months. For corporations offering an precise service, the implications have been dire.
The hospice firm that my aged mom makes use of may not pay their workers. The nurse who recurrently visited my mom misplaced his home, needed to transfer in along with his dad and mom and eventually needed to discover one other job. The kicker is that, when funds lastly resumed, Medicare paid curiosity on the funds that they had withheld. A lot for saving cash.
Karen Ricks, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Oz and Brandt extol the success the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies has had in lowering fraud. “One key to success has been to lastly acknowledge the size of the issue and adapt appropriately,” they write. They appear to be oblivious to the actual fact they’re working a catch-and-release program during which their boss, President Trump, has granted clemency to a number of the biggest fraudsters of the system.
Salomon Melgen was a watch physician in Florida who was convicted of defrauding the federal government of $100 million. Trump commuted his 17-year jail sentence. Philip Esformes had been sentenced to twenty years in jail for a large $1.3-billion Medicare fraud scheme. Trump commuted his sentence as effectively.
Good work, Oz and Brandt, however urge Trump to cease pardoning the Medicare and Medicaid fraudsters you catch.
Todd Collart, Ventura
