The media sound bites indicate that Ms. Ramirez was able to bill her charges with just a laptop computer and that she had no more than a high school education.
The Washington Post article emphasizes the simplicity and the size of the problem.
Ms. Ramirez charged 140,000 Medicare claims for HIV drug therapy.
The article states that most of the south Florida Medicare fraud focuses on the following:
"...schemes center on expensive, infusion-based HIV medications and on equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, canes and hospital beds."
The problem is that honest, hard-working physical therapists get lumped in with the evil-doers.
"Officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees federally funded health programs, say they have stepped up their efforts to combat fraud over the past year by working closely with investigators, removing the requisite billing numbers of nearly 900 companies and imposing new standards in high-fraud areas..."
What physical therapists really need is a simple way to comply with current regulations, not more regulations.
