Government Cuts Are the Least of Medicaid and Medicare`s Worries
In addition to the reforms on these two federally funded programs that provide health insurance to approximately 100 million people, now two of the nation`s largest laboratory testing facilities, Quest diagnostic and Laboratory of America (LabCorp)--which control around $25 billion in the lab test market--and three of the largest insurers are under fire from the Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus and ranking member Charles Grassley. As of November 8th these five companies have been mandated to turn over records that may prove they scammed Medicare and Medicaid out of billions of dollars in suspected overpayments.
At a recent court settlement in California, both Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp were required to abdicate over a quarter of a billion dollars from overcharging California`s Medicaid program. Here in New York a similar suit was filed in federal court ignited by a former industry executive who claims that testing companies were billing insurers such as United Healthcare, Aetna and Cigna at lower rates than that of patients covered by Medicare and Medicaid.
The Senate Finance Committee has demanded records from all companies involved to attempt to rectify this matter. As this story unfolds, we at Lenco Lab will do our very best to make ensure that you are kept up to date on what is happening.