Washington, D.C. - U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) is seeking a congressional hearing into rampant Medicare fraud in the Houston region. Hundreds of millions of dollars have potentially been stolen from the health care program for seniors as reported in a recent investigative series by Houston Chronicle reporter Terri Langford.
 
Brady, a senior member of the House Ways & Means Committee which has jurisdiction over Medicare, requested the hearing in a letter to the chairman of his committee’s Oversight Sub-Committee, Representative Charles Boustany of Louisiana.
"Medicare fraud isn’t simply another white collar crime. This is stealing from America’s elderly and ill," said Brady. "My guess is that if this shocking amount of fraud is occurring here in the Houston region it's probably happening all across the country. We need to shine a bright light on it all."
 
The Chronicle investigation revealed millions of dollars of apparent Medicare waste and abuse in ambulance trips for healthy patients, the appearance of collusion between some ambulance services and mental health clinics, shell owners of Medicare transportation companies and inflated home health care billings. For example, Medicare paid $62 million to private ambulance services in Harris County during 2009 while the entire city of New York required only $7 million for the same services that year.
 
The series also revealed Medicare seemingly ignored local requests for closer scrutiny of the Medicare providers, including a bi-partisan letter in 2009 from Harris County District Attorney Pat Lycos, U.S. Congressman Gene Green and Brady.
 
"My concern is not only the millions of taxpayer dollars lost to rampant fraud within these Medicare services but also the lack of responsiveness by Medicare to local officials raising red flags about the financial integrity of the programs," wrote Brady. "The series of news articles makes a compelling argument that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) needs to significantly strengthen the integrity of Medicare programs by responding immediately to referrals from law enforcement, tightening loose payment regulations and providing much stronger oversight of its state contractors." 
 

Congressman Brady's letter to Oversight Sub-Committee Chairman Boustany is attached  here.