Texas Medicaid Fraud

Oops! More kickbacks for health officials have landed Texan health officials in some serious hot water. What is important about this case, as with all fraud cases, is that it affects the individuals who trusted in others to do their job and to do it well. People don't want to be seen as dollar signs, it grows contempt in the consumer which is just bad business.

This case, with phony advocacy groups and false marketing materials is predatorial and wrong and these individuals deserve to be prosecuted by the full extent of the law.

J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceutica funneled kickbacks to Texas health officials, distributed false marketing materials and deployed phony advocacy groups to get its Risperdal antipsychotic prescribed to low-income Texans, the state alleges in a new filing in an ongoing fraud lawsuit filed in 2006, according to The Dallas Morning News

Could Medicare bailout be worse than financial bailout?

William McKenzie at the Dallas Morning News thinks the current financial crisis will be a walk in the park compared to the next looming disaster - the downfall of Medicare. He believes many people are overlooking the oncoming bankruptcy of Medicare. However Michael Leavitt, the Secretary of Human and Health Services, is someone who is currently recognizing the problem.

The system currently faces two problems:

•There will be too few workers to pay for the benefits Medicare has promised today's workers. Right now, there are about four workers for every Medicare beneficiary. In 20 years, that ratio falls to about 2.5.

•Second, benefit costs will explode in inverse proportion to that dwindling work force. Mr. Leavitt projects that Medicare will rise from about 13 percent of federal spending today to about 23 percent in 20 years.

Do you agree or disagree with Mr. McKenzie? Is Medicare going to fall apart? What can be done to prevent this from happening?

Welcome to Doughnut Hole Season

In a recent article at the Dallas Morning News, they discuss the current stress one in five seniors is now facing until the end of the calendar year. Doughnut Hole Season is the time of year when low co-payments reach their gap in the drug coverage provided by Medicare, and, as a result, they are faced with staggeringly high payments for their medication. In 2007, 3.4 million seniors faced this situation.

Through the current program, seniors are responsible for full costs once all of Medicare’s payments (co-pays and deductibles) have reached $2150. They do not pick up payments again until citizens spending exceed $5726. However, only one in five will reach this amount.