Quote (thesnipa @ May 6 2019 09:45am)

this is what Trump promised in the early debates. Pay for a Wall and x, y, and z also by eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse in the system.

$600m is a good start on reforming the terrible health care industry, but i don't see that many other industries that this could be applied to for more saving. Perhaps contracting for public works projects like road construction, but there's not exactly an equivalent option to generic brands.

Quote (tagged4nothing @ 6 May 2019 15:33)

this isn't a healthcare topic. it's the OIG topic.

if you'd like to discuss the OIG's work of the topic, that's more than fine.
if you'd like to take info of OIG's work from this thread to put towards healthcare thread, that is also fine.

this thread will not be limited to the HHS's OIG, but i created it specifically for the work of the OIG's.

Quote (tagged4nothing @ May 6 2019 08:56am)

healthcare is definitely one of the largest "messed-up" industries. honestly i'm hoping they continue to really hammer on more issues surrounding healthcare.

funny you should say something about roads. i've been reading about a new concrete that's supposedly cheaper and stronger. composed from the students of UofM. it's not an OIG thing though.
as far as i'm aware it's currently being tested on bridges around the area. i'll catch back up on reading about it if you're interested at all.

Quote (thesnipa @ May 6 2019 10:29am)

a link would be great, i'd for sure read that.

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Lower cost for high performance

Ultra high-performance concrete, or UHPC, has been on the market for a while under a small handful of brand names. But high prices have kept it out of widespread use by local, state and federal governments. A municipality looking to replace a bridge or rebuild a crumbling road, might spend $100 to $120 per cubic yard of regular concrete. To upgrade to a brand-name UHPC, that same local government would be looking at paying $2,800 per cubic yard.

So governments are forced to repeatedly fix and replace aging infrastructure, leading to a backlog of roughly $500 billion in critically needed road and bridge repairs. The state of Michigan spends $3.5 billion a year on upkeep, said Steve Kahl, supervising engineer at MDOT.

“Regular concrete will have a strength of about 4,000 pounds per square inch…that’s maybe the weight of an SUV on every square inch,” El-Tawil said. “However, UHPC can support at least 22,000 psi or six times as much.”

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Because of the fibers, the UHPC created at U-M is still more expensive than regular concrete. But it represents a 70-percent price drop from the UHPC brands currently on the market. And as the cost of steel fibers drops with increasing demand, the cost of the U-M concrete would also fall.

“Our UHPC brings down the cost of long-term maintenance,” El-Tawil said. “It’s still more expensive than regular concrete, but if you consider the effect over the lifetime of a bridge, then the cost becomes very competitive. If you have a concrete deck on a bridge that lives for 200 years with little to no maintenance—imagine the cost savings.

Quote (Saucisson6000 @ May 6 2019 04:22pm)

cool

HUD inspector general investigating whether Trump administration slowed disaster aid to Puerto Rico

https://www.housingwire.com/articles/48563-hud-inspector-general-investigating-whether-trump-administration-slowed-disaster-aid-to-puerto-rico

Im sure they will do a good job

Quote (EA7 @ 6 May 2019 16:50)

How angry are you that Trump is a complete ALPHA male with a model for a wife and is now the most powerful man in the entire world, who will likely win again in 2020 the way things are going?

Meanwhile you're stuck at home playing PoE and women won't even look at you. It's beyond politics at this point fam. You simply hate Trump because he's what you'll NEVER be, and it makes you seethe with resentment and envy.

Quote (EA7 @ 6 May 2019 21:50)

How angry are you that Trump is a complete ALPHA male with a model for a wife and is now the most powerful man in the entire world, who will likely win again in 2020 the way things are going?

Meanwhile you're stuck at home playing PoE and women won't even look at you. It's beyond politics at this point fam. You simply hate Trump because he's what you'll NEVER be, and it makes you seethe with resentment and envy.

Quote (excellence @ 6 May 2019 22:32)

lmfao great post my friend! angry little foreign voyeur “sauceman666066060060” slapped back to the gutter he spawned from!

Quote (Saucisson6000 @ May 6 2019 11:01pm)

hey dumbfucks, stop talking about yourselves

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjrfOcPDKfs

Quote (excellence @ May 6 2019 10:32pm)

lmfao great post my friend! angry little foreign voyeur “sauceman666066060060” slapped back to the gutter he spawned from!

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In one listed instance, the defendants’ fraudulent conduct caused a prescription plan administrator to pay over $29,000 for one tube of a cream advertised as treating “general wounds.”

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“Motivated by greed, the defendants executed a brazen health care fraud conspiracy and scheme that cost health insurance plans, including those that protect the elderly, disabled, military members and veterans, millions of dollars,” Town said. “Their scheme deprived health insurance plans of money that could have gone to assist patients with real medical needs. To date, this investigation has resulted in 28 people being charged. Would-be healthcare fraudsters should be on notice that our Office is dedicated to rooting out this conduct. We applaud the investigative agencies for their hard work.”

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How OIG Did This Review
Our audit covered 112,289 Medicaid capitation payments, totaling almost $74 million ($56.4 million Federal share) made on behalf of beneficiaries whose dates of death preceded the payment dates. We reviewed capitation payments that California made from July 1, 2014, through December 31, 2017. We selected a stratified random sample of 184 capitation payments totaling $528,769 ($387,751 Federal share) for review. Using the results of our sample, we estimated the total value and Federal share of the unallowable capitation payments.

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What OIG Found
California made capitation payments after beneficiaries’ deaths. Of the 184 capitation payments in our random sample, 6 payments were correct. For the remaining 178 payments, California made unallowable payments totaling $433,948 ($302,755 Federal share). Despite California’s efforts to identify and recover unallowable payments, some (29 percent) of these unallowable payments occurred more than 1 year after the beneficiaries’ deaths, but the remaining (71 percent) unallowable payments occurred during the first year after the beneficiaries’ dates of death.

The unallowable payments occurred because California did not: (1) disenroll beneficiaries after their dates of death were identified during data interface between the eligibility system and the California Death Master file; (2) collaborate with the California Department of Public Health to identify inconsistencies between dates of death and other data (like Social Security Numbers); or (3) regularly use additional sources or alternative procedures to identify, verify or determine dates of death.

On the basis of our sample results, we estimated that California made unallowable payments totaling $70.9 million ($53.4 million Federal share) to MCOs during our audit period.

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The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, with our Federal and State law enforcement partners, participated in the largest ever prescription opioid law enforcement operation. The Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Surge Takedown resulted in charges against 60 individuals, including 53 medical professionals, for their alleged participation in the illegal prescribing and distributing of opioids and other dangerous narcotics and for healthcare fraud schemes. The charges involve over 350,000 prescriptions for controlled substances and over 32 million pills in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, and Tennessee. More than 24,000 patients in the region who received prescriptions from these medical professionals over the past 2 years are affected by the law enforcement activity. This effort demonstrates the positive impact the Medicare Fraud Strike Force is making in our communities.