The NY newspaper, newsday.com reports that eight clinics on LI charged inflated medical bills in amounts already determined to be $14 million, as reported by Delthia Ricks, http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-lidocs2812111081oct28,0,5144079.story.
Here I have argued before that health services and health insurance reform would best come from doing away with the entitlement enjoyed by governmental workers in the form of benefits packages unavailable to the ordinary citizens who finance this giveaway. Doing away with governmental benefits packages is an obvious move for the United States citizenry for three reasons: 1) Doing away with the government benefits package would save billions in benefits paid out to people who enjoy a package unavailable to those people footing the bill (the rest of us) 2) Putting the millions of governmental workers into the marketplace to "shop" around and be "empowered" with the rest of us scrounging for affordable health insurance will provide the boots on the ground experience to our governmental workers that always creates an incentive for change 3) Doing away with an expensive and unfair governmental handout is a lot easier and less time consuming than figuring out a "new" plan and would immediately put new life into a sagging economy through savings of dollars that are unjustified in today's market.
It's outrageous, and I don't use the term lightly that the American people who have non governmental jobs have to go through the painful process of benefits "election" where we can see this year's fewer services for more money while governmental employees continue to enjoy superior health insurance benefits. Don't take my word for it, look up the governmental insurance plan available at every level of government. Look at how long a person has to work for the government to be able to reap those benefits FOREVER! It's time for governments to listen to their own words and have some skin in the game as all the "conservatives" preach. Every argument presented to the American people, including the burden on employers providing benefits, in this case the government, should apply to government employees.
Regarding the newest finding of overcharging of government health plans by certain providers described above, sadly, no one is going to jail because the government finds it too difficult to prove fraud. However, this fact does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that therefore New York only seeks to recapture the misspent funds. Between the criminal prosecution of these providers and the 100% forgiveness of these providers less the fraction of the money that is recovered, is a third choice. The choice is obvious, suspension of the privilege of acting as a participating provider for government employees for some specified period of time. By creating a suspension of privileges to act as a participating provider on the grounds of negligence or gross incompetence, NY would send a clear message to providers that it's not worth the risk of losing the governmental cash cow by engaging in such practices. But there's a bigger reason to have this standard and that is that there are, in my opinion, undoubtedly dozens of governmental workers who "overlooked" the fraud. After all, some of the money was made by overcharging the government for services rather than charging government beneficiaries co-payments. Through the suspension of privileges of the providers, someone will be encouraged to examine this undoubted connection between the providers and government employees.
As we all listen to what we must sacrifice in the name of "saving" health care, it's time for all governmental employees to get some skin in the game by shopping around for health insurance like the rest of us.
