Medicare: Are Physicians, Hospitals, Medical Supply Stores, and Home Health Care Providers Over Charging Medicare?

Medicare pays out billions of dollars to physicians, hospitals, medical supply stores, and home health care providers. How often are these health care providers over charging Medicare? If Medicare had a different system and approach to how they are being charge for these services, they could save millions of dollars.

This is an example of how I think Medicare is being over charged. Being a diabetic I developed a sore (ulcer), I was sent over to physical therapy for them to access the wound. Upon arriving they looked at my sore and put me in their whirlpool for ten minutes. When I received the billing statement from Medicare, the hospital charged Medicare over $400. How Medicare can be charged $400 for 15 to 20 minutes of care is beyond me. Another time I went to physical therapy they observed my sore, changed the bandage and sent me home with a couple 4x4 bandages. When I received this billing statement in the mail, they charged Medicare over $300. You spend more time waiting to be seen by health care providers, than the time it takes for them to take care for you. They must charge you for the time you wait as well.

Medicare pays a substantial amount of money to medical supply stores as well. Here is an example as to why I believe they also over charge Medicare. I have been in a wheelchair for over 20 years, which Medicare makes the payments for. Each month Medicare is charged $150 to $200 for the wheelchair I rent from a medical supply store. This is both the medical supply stores fault as well as Medicare's fault. After 20 years how much do you think Medicare has paid out for the wheelchair I am only renting? If Medicare paid $100 a month for the wheelchair and wheelchairs range from $300 to $1,500 to own. If you do the math, Medicare has already paid $24,000 for my wheelchair I am only renting. Now if Medicare would have paid out right for my chair, even if they had to pay $1,500, Medicare could of saved $22,500. Imagine the money Medicare could save a year if they took this approach for millions of Medicare holders.

Medicare's only argument on this could be they don't want to pay out right for a wheelchair for someone who may end up passing away a month later. This is where they need to come up with a better way of dealing with medical supply stores. For paraplegics who have just recently had their accident that paralyzed them, it isn't a death sentence. This is an example on how situations like this; it would be cheaper in the long run to just pay out right for the wheelchair.

If Medicare would just come up with other ways of saving money like this, there would be millions of dollars a year that would be saved. The people who suffer from this are taxpayers, people who work hard for their money. If Medicare saved millions of dollars each year, would it also lower the taxes taxpayers pay out of their checks?

If Medicare had warehouses stationed throughout states with supplies like bandages, wheelchairs, walkers, and oxygen tanks. This could potentially save Medicare millions and possibly billions of dollars each year. Excluding the bandages and other supplies that can't be reused, they could sanitize and reuse wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, and walkers. Many other supplies could be sanitized as well, and save Medicare and taxpayers a lot of money. When patient who are using wheelchairs, walkers, oxygen tanks, and other supplies pass away, they can be returned to these warehouses. Medicare is charged ten times more for bandages that can be purchased at stores for $2.00. Example, when I would receive bandages from physical therapy, Medicare was charge ten times more than if I were to purchase them from the Dollar General Store. When I noticed Medicare was being over charged for my supplies, I started purchasing these supplies out of my own pocket.