On Friday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) next target.
The article reports:
Elon Musk, who is leading the charge under President Trump’s newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), announced on his social media platform X that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wasted a staggering “$100 billion of taxpayer money.”
On Wednesday, Musk’s team, along with two senior veterans from the agency, has been meticulously reviewing the CMS’s payment and contracting systems, which are crucial for managing health insurance for approximately one in every four Americans, according to far-left USA Today.
“CMS has two senior Agency veterans – one focused on policy and one focused on operations – who are leading the collaboration with DOGE, including ensuring appropriate access to CMS systems and technology,” the agency said in a statement to Reuters.
The DOGE team was granted read-only access to the system.
The article concludes:
Medicare currently covers about 68 million Americans, primarily those over 65 and individuals with disabilities, while Medicaid serves approximately 73 million low-income citizens.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), from June 2024 through October 2024, CMS suspended 850 agents and brokers’ Marketplace Agreements for reasonable suspicion of fraudulent or abusive conduct related to unauthorized enrollments or unauthorized plan switches. These agents and brokers are now prohibited from participating in Marketplace enrollment, including receiving related commissions.
The Department of Justice has also been active in combating healthcare fraud.
In recent years, the average loss associated with the schemes prosecuted by the Health Care Fraud Unit has steadily risen.
In June 2024, the Department of Justice announced charges against 193 defendants, including 76 medical professionals, for their alleged involvement in fraudulent schemes amounting to approximately $2.75 billion in false claims.
Since 2007, the Health Care Fraud Unit has charged more than 5,400 defendants with fraudulently billing Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurers more than $27 billion.
It’s amazing what young computer wizards can find!