Federal Marketing Programs
I spent 8 painful hours at my new practicum site today going through employee training. Among the endless information stream I was forced privileged to read, was DRA training. What, you might, ask is DRA training? Well, it's the act of Congress that gave Medicaid broader powers and greater funding to ferret out fraud. Fine. Whatever. I'm sure fraud exists. It's probably a good idea investigate and prosecute those defrauding the federal government taxpayers of their money. Though I must say that every time I get tangled in insurance red tape that is supposedly saving me money, I have to wonder how much money is being spent to sustain the bureaucratic system.
But what I found most interesting is what DRA stands for. It's the Deficit Reduction Act (of 2005). That has a much better ring that The Trimming Medicaid and Student Loan Subsidies Act doesn't it? Oddly enough, those were the only items on the table. Apparently the government isn't wasteful anywhere else. (co*ir*u*aq*gh) It's interesting that the White House fact sheet on the DRA doesn't mention boosting the budget for ensuring compliance and honesty. It makes no mention of how much fraud they believe exists. No mention of how much they anticipate recovering. I hope it's a lot. The budget for auditing heath care providers is 75 million. I guess the old axiom applies here: You've got to spend money to make money.