“Four United States senators have introduced a bipartisan bill to close a little-known, but gaping, loophole that allows scammers to plunder commercial insurers by posing as licensed medical providers.”
“The Medical License Verification Act, introduced Thursday, comes in response to a July ProPublica story that showed how absurdly easy it is to commit health care fraud, which experts say could be costing Americans hundreds of billions of dollars a year. ProPublica told the story of David Williams, a Texas personal trainer and convicted felon, who represented himself as a licensed physician when he applied for National Provider Identifiers, the unique numbers required by the federal government to bill insurance plans.”
“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administers the NPI program. But ProPublica found that…”
“The proposed Medical License Verification Act would require Medicare to verify that an NPI applicant’s license is valid and in good standing before approving an NPI number…” Read the full article here.
Source: We Showed How Easy It Is to Commit Health Care Fraud. Now Senators Want to Close the Loophole – By Marshall Allen, February 14, 2020. ProPublica.
