Medicare fraud is a crime where some people assume there are no victims. Because the crime mainly causes financial damage, it is easy to take this stance, but the effects of Medicare fraud are far-reaching.
The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association explains that financially, this type of fraud leads to a loss of over $10 billion each year. Someone has to pay for this loss, and it is usually you and other consumers.
The financial effects
The losses due to fraud will increase the overall costs of insurance for everyone. This increase in costs has a negative effect on businesses because their expenses for employee healthcare rise. So, the domino effect leads to an increase in the overall cost of living because everything becomes more expensive to make up for the fraud.
Other effects
Medicare fraud also leads to stolen identities and exploitation of patients. Some instances of fraud involve doing unnecessary procedures or changing patient records. These fake records can lead to issues for you down the road, even though you do not have the listed medical issues. For example, an insurance company could charge you excessively more for coverage under the belief that you have a history of certain conditions.
There are also physical risks since medical fraud can lead to information ending up in your record that untrue. You could undergo procedures you do not need or end up lasting effects from a treatment you did not need.
Perhaps most alarming, Medicare fraud can also be the basis for organized crime groups. It could fund terrorists or other groups that are a serious danger to the public.
