Medicare Payment Option May Empower Fraudsters, Democrats Warn

A Medicare pilot program could be letting health care companies with a history of defrauding the government “further encroach on the Medicare system,” congressional Democrats warn.

A number of insurers and other groups participating in previous accountable care models have been accused of health care fraud, or settled fraud allegations, the lawmakers said in a Thursday letter to Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The accountable care model is meant to help the agency lower costs by offering lump sums to doctors instead of the typical fee-for-service payments.

The move is the latest pushback by ...