Combating Waste and Fraud in Medicare: President Trump’s choice for Secretary of the Department of Labor, is Alexander Acosta. There is consensus among both Democrats and Republicans that this is a good choice. He has been described as “just a mild-mannered law school faculty member.” Allison Bell, in an article for LifeHealthPro. In reality, from 2005 to 2009, while Acosta was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida— the top federal prosecutor for the region that includes Miami, all of the federal crime that occurs in Florida from Key West up past West Palm Beach—he started the country’s first health care fraud task force. While Acosta was managing the effort to prosecute Jack Abramoff for fraud and major cocaine importers for importing cocaine, he was also leading an effort to charge about 700 people with $2 billion in health care fraud, or about $1,900 in fraud per Medicare enrollee in South Florida.” WOW !!! That’s bigtime good news. At least somebody in the administration will be able to spread the word about this problem. It is estimated that there is $60 Billion Per Year in Waste, Fraud and Abuse in Medicare.
Orphan Drugs: Have you ever heard of “Orphan Drugs?” Orphan drugs are specialty drugs that are developed for those who have particular maladies not associated with drugs developed in common areas, and for which relatively few people have the need. These drugs were addressed more than thirty years ago in an overwhelmingly passed landmark health bill aimed at motivating pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs for people whose rare diseases had been ignored, but by the drug makers’ calculations, the markets for such drugs weren’t big enough to bother with.” Lucrative financial incentives created by the “Orphan Drug Act” signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 succeeded far beyond anyone’s expectations. More than 200 companies have brought almost 450 ‘orphan drugs’ to market since the law took effect.
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