More Medicare fraud alleged—a mosque owner and a pharmacist charged

I really get tired of saying I told you so.

If you read here frequently, you’ll recall I like to do soapbox rants about Medicare fraud. Partly because I care about seniors like my mom and partly because my husband and I actually pay taxes—you can see where I’m going with this.

Legacy media is finally paying attention to this fraud, maybe because a progressive publication finally acknowledged it. Funny thing is, the Detroit cases appear to surprise the folks at Detroit Free Press.

DFP pointed out:

“Since 2007, 990 people nationwide have been charged with filing $2.3 billion in false Medicare billings. Metro Detroit, considered a hotbed for Medicare fraud, has seen at least $120 million in such billings.”

The US Report has documented numerous cases of Medicare and other fraud. The US government started to be more aggressive in uncovering such fraud under the administration of President George W. Bush.

I’d like to point out that’s the fraud we know about. Billions more go undetected. Think about the mortgage fraud indirectly supported by government-sponsored enterprises, welfare fraud, food stamp fraud, social security fraud and financial fraud.

Those Occupy kids really should head to Capitol Hill. The public would love them if they did that.

Meanwhile, the lack of accountability on the part of the federal government when it comes to taxpayer money suggests that any Democrat asking for more tax money from anyone should be ushered towards the nearest tar and feathers bucket.

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/Nov. 30, 2011)

Update on Friday, December 2, 2011 at 10:22AM by Kay B. Day, Editor

Update, Dec. 2, 2011

A commenter at Facebook responded to this column on a link share thread. He asked if someone could 'own' a mosque. I explained that this terminology was used by Detroit Free Press in the writeup about these cases. It's possible the suspect owns the building the mosque is located in, but that qualifier was not included in the original DFP story. Here's the passage, with relevant part in bold,  our claim is based on:

"Mehmood, records show, is a wealthy Pakistani businessman who owns 16 home health agencies and a mosque in metro Detroit, along with a rice factory, a religious school and a farm in Pakistan."

The full story appears at DFP and a link is also included in our commentary above.