You count your change before you leave the store. You check the receipt to make sure it is right. Does that mean you think you are dealing with crooks? No, it just means you have common sense.
The same applies to Medicare claims. Asking beneficiaries to check their statements to make sure taxpayers are billed correctly is only common sense.
We process about a billion claims each year. Asking the people who actually get the health care to check the receipt is simply good program management. And random review of claims is an essential tool for getting a fair and accurate assessment of the big picture.
After all, everybody makes mistakes. Most are honest errors. Preventing them, finding them, and correcting them is all just common sense.
But all of this common sense does highlight some additional steps we can take at HCFA. We need to educate beneficiaries . . . [Full Text of this Article]
