A feather in Medicare’s cap for rooting out more fraud. No matter how the publicity angle appears, this is good news for the HME industry.
You’re thinking, “Brian’s finally gone over the edge,” right? Maybe. (Of course, maybe you’d been thinking that for quite some time!)
For at least two reasons, I believe this is positive for legitimate HME providers.
#1 – You didn’t participate in this fraudulent activity, did you? So how can you be held responsible? Don’t fret over what you can’t control. We can’t control whether someone else decides to commit federal crimes.
#2 – Medicare did its job by uncovering these crimes using the current tools available to it. Rather than continuing to tighten the screws on law-abiding, beneficiary-serving HME providers, CMS went after the bad guys. And it worked.
If CMS continues this strategy, other bad guys may decide that bilking Medicare isn’t as profitable as they’d hoped. The result is that more of the Medicare budget will go toward the beneficiaries who deserve a certain level of care.
CMS looks good for its stewardship over our tax dollars. Real HME providers look good for continuing to lawfully provide the products, services and intangibles that you provide every day. Now, that story has potential for a mutual happy ending.
