Friday, October 31, 2014

Medicare bought meds for dead people

My Way News - APNewsBreak: Medicare bought meds for dead people:
"WASHINGTON (AP) — Call it drugs for the departed: Medicare's prescription program kept paying for costly medications even after patients were dead.
The problem was traced back to a head-scratching bureaucratic rule that's now getting a second look.
A report coming out Friday from the Health and Human Services Department's inspector general says the Medicare rule allows payment for prescriptions filled up to 32 days after a patient's death — at odds with the program's basic principles, not to mention common sense.
"Drugs for deceased beneficiaries are clearly not medically indicated, which is a requirement for (Medicare) coverage," the IG report said. It urged immediate changes to eliminate or restrict the payment policy.
Medicare said it's working on a fix."

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