Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Headlines for Health Care Scams for US Retirees in the Philippines:

The following are some of the stories and information that are in the headlines of broadsheets in the Philipines. The health benefits and claims of US retirees in the Philippines were used to scam Tricare:

- A federal judge orders an RP firm to pay $100 million for health scam.

- Health Visions Corp. which pleaded guilty has inflated claims by nore than 230%, operated aphony insurance program, billed for medical services never deliveredm and it totaled to almost $100 M from 1998 to 2004.

- Thomas Lutz, Health Vision former President could face up to 5 years in prison plus forfeiture of $910,000 plu $500,000 fines.

- Dr Alberto Marzan, afilipino doctor who played a big role in $100M swindle of the US Military Health Insurance Program recruited dozens of military retirees in the Philippines to falsely claim they and their relatives were confined at his clinic and recieve expensive medical services. He made $1.5M fraudulent claims.

- Health Scam continues in the Philippines according to some US retirees. Some blacklisted clinics just change their names and some clinics in Olongapo City still continue to overprice their services.

- Some beneficiaries already reported this scheme to Tricare but still the scam continues.

- Tricare spokesperson, Austin Camacho said the program had already adopted new controls to combat fraud in the Philippines. In 2001 to 2007, they refused to pay $288 M in fraudulent or excessive claims.

Again the Philippines is in the spotlight with this news. When can we stop hearing news of scams from the Philippines.

1 comment:

  1. The scams continue because the Tricare Management Activity ignores reports of fraud. They receive many documented cases of fraud but simply continue to pay the guilty parties then complain that it is the retirees fault. At the same time their claims contractor plays games with legitimate claims from retirees. The contractor gets paid more when they deny a claim and it has to be resubmitted. They deny claims simply because the retiree does not have withdrawal slips from his bank in the amounts he paid for his care although he has receipts from the providers. One guy here has colon cancer and is still trying to get paid for $10K of legitimate care.

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