Center for Public Integrity writer says listserv led to Medicare-fraud story
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Joe Eaton of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative-news outlet in Washington, followed up on an Office of Inspector General report that showed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has no system to verify the physician-ID numbers on prescriptions.
He writes: “In 2007, Medicare Part D plans paid pharmacies $1.2 billion for 18 million prescription drug claims with ID numbers that were deactivated, retired, or not listed in federal registries.” An official likened the lack of valid ID numbers to “placing a combination lock on a gate to protect what’s inside, but then allowing any combination to open the gate.”
Today’s Tip: Watch reports from the offices of inspector general, Joe says.
The story idea came from the report as well as an aide to Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Joe says.
You can join the listserv for the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services, which issued this report. Many other federal agencies, as well as some state ones, have offices of inspector general, charged with rooting out waste, fraud and other misconduct. Find out which ones regulate industries or companies you cover and get on their listservs, RSS or Twitter feeds for alerts. Here’s a partial list of federal ones:
- State
- Commerce
- Postal Service
- Labor
- Veterans Affairs
- Agriculture
- Transportation
- Homeland Security
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Justice
While not an inspector general, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigates all sorts of government programs, and its listserv gives you choices for which areas — such as energy, economic development, health — you wish to receive e-mail alerts.
