2012 can't get here fast enough

[graybeard321]

IBM offered to help reduce Medicare fraud for free...

The offer is true. Zukermann , US News and World Report, owner, a Democrat was interviewed on Fox and confirmed it. IBM has confirmed it. You won't believe it .

The Chairman and CEO of IBM, Samuel J. Palmisano, approached President Obama and members of his administration before the healthcare bill debates with a plan that would reduce healthcare expenditures by $900 billion? Given the Obama Administration's adamancy that the United States of America simply had to make healthcare (read: health insurance) affordable for even the most dedicated welfare recipient, one would think he would have leaned forward in his chair, cupped his ear and said, "Tell me more!"

And what if I told you that the cost to the federal government for this program was nothing, zip, nada, zilch?

And, what if I told you that, in the end and after two meetings, President Obama and his team, instead of embracing a program that was proven to save money and one that was projected to save almost one trillion dollars - a private sector program costing the taxpayers nothing, zip, nada, zilch - said, "Thanks but no thanks" and then embarked on passing one of the most despised pieces of legislation in US history?

Well, it's all true.

Samuel J.. Palmisano, the Chairman of the Board and CEO for IBM, said in a recent Wall Street Journal interview that he offered to provide the Obama Administration with a program that would curb healthcare claims fraud and abuse by almost one trillion dollars but the Obama White House turned the offer down.

"We could have improved the quality and reduced the cost of the healthcare system by $900 billion...I said we would do it for free to prove that it works. Obama turned it down."

A second meeting between Mr. Palmisano and the Obama Administration took place two weeks later, with no change in the Obama Administration's stance. A call placed to IBM on October 8, 2010, by FOX News confirmed, via a spokesperson, that Mr.. Palmisano stands by his statement.

Speaking with FOX News' Stuart Varney, Mort Zuckerman, Editor-in-Chief of US News & World Report, said,

"It's a little bit puzzling because I think there is a huge amount of both fraud and inefficiency that American business is a lot more comfortable with and more effective in trying to reduce. And this is certainly true because the IBM people have studied this very carefully. And when Palmisano went to the White House and made that proposal, it was based upon a lot of work and it was not accepted. And it's really puzzling...These are very, very responsible people and don't have a political ax to grind.

In Mr. Obama's shunning of a private sector program that would have saved our country almost $1 trillion in healthcare expenditures, presented to him as he declared a "crisis in healthcare," he proves two things beyond any doubt: that he is anti-Capitalist and anti-private sector in nature and that he can no longer be trusted to tell the truth in both his political declarations or espoused goals.

[CowboyT]

Proof? Any evidence of any of this?

[OakRidgeStars]

This story features the quote from Newt Gingrich that's at least partially responsible for the rumors. If you search the interwebs, you can find a few other related comments.

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-re ... an-history

[OakRidgeStars]

From the Washington Examiner - Feb. 2011

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/bel ... a-turned-h

[CowboyT]

So we have figures of $125 billion and $900 billion, so there's some inconsistency here. Nonetheless, either way, that's a lot of fraud that we could rein in. I'd like to know more from Mr. Palmisano why this offer was rejected, but this clearly does not look good at this point.

[Kreutz]

Medicare fraud is easy because the claims are paid before they're investigated. If it passes the softwares flags (not difficult to do) it gets paid.

Medicaid fraud is so easy a lobotomized monkey can do it. By the time anyone looks you can be long gone with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The hottest trends in fraud are home health and DME (durable medical equipment).

The rules Congress writes on Medicare hurts too, CMS must often overpay for things because of their influence. Thats why medicare pays $1,000 for a b $400 wheelchair.