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WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 25) -- President Bill Clinton announced a series of steps today designed to help save some of the billions of dollars the government loses in Medicare and Medicaid fraud and waste each year. The measures will try to stop the abuse before it occurs.
"These steps are important," Clinton told reporters in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. "They will save the government and the American people a great deal of money. They will also buy something that money cannot alone buy: a greater sense of security and peace of mind for our parents, our most vulnerable families and children.
"We can and will preserve Medicare," the president continued. "We can and will make the Medicaid system work better and serve more children. The steps we take today will protect and strengthen those systems that mean so much to our families and to our future."
Clinton was flanked at the announcement by Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles.
The General Accounting Office estimated recently that fraud in the system accounts for between 3 and 10 percent of the money spent on Medicare. If the estimate is accurate, that represents between $6 billion and $20 billion of the $197 billion spent last year on the program.
Medicare is a federal health care insurance program for people aged 65 and over and for the disabled. It helps pay such costs as stays in hospitals or nursing facilities.
The steps the president proposed include:
- Increasing monetary penalties against those who abuse the system.
- Preventing convicted felons from continuing as Medicare health care providers.
- Strengthening background checks of health care providers to ensure that those who have had fraud problems no longer continue in the system.
Administration officials say that some health care providers who engage in fraud change their names and move to another state. Clinton's plan would check Social Security and health care provider numbers to keep such people out of the system.
Appearing before the press on crutches, the president also announced that he would postpone his mid-April trip to Mexico until May 6-7 to allow his injured knee more time to heal. His planned trip to South America will be delayed until the fall.