Follow this link to an article by Reuters about fraud in the health care system.

I post this as a way to balance yesterday’s post decrying the misuse of the Dartmouth study on variations in health care costs.

I don’t want people to think that I am naive enough to say that there is no fraud.  What frustrated me about the Dartmouth report was the implication that all variation was due to fraud.  No doubt some of the variation is due to fraud.  The Reuters article mentions estimates of fraud:

The FBI estimates that fraud accounts for 3 percent to 10 percent of U.S. healthcare expenditure per year, and Gillies said it could easily cost about $200 billion annually.

The variations in the Dartmouth report are far larger than 3 to 10 percent.  Of course, fraud may be centered in specific areas of the country and account for far larger fraction of the costs in that particular location than is the national average.

There may be a particularly concentrated amount of fraud going on in south Florida.  According to the article:

Florida has long been known for its unsavory association with cocaine cartels, political shenanigans and swampland real estate deals.

Gillies says the state is also now “ground zero for healthcare fraud” since so many elderly Americans have retired to end their days in its famous sunshine.

Also remember that the estimate of fraud is for the entire health care system.  It is not limited to the government insured part, Medicare and Medicaid.