One of the most frequent crimes of the affluent and the high-class of the society is Medicaid fraud. These frauds can be committed by several parties including the recipients and the providers. Medicaid is a government program that utilizes the taxpayer’s money to provide healthcare to the low income groups of the society. It is basically setup to help the weaker sections of the society including individuals above the age of 65, the disabled, the medically compromised and the low-income groups.
The nations would be happy if the money is spending to help people in need, but frequently several providers and recipients indulge in fraud and abuse of the funds set aside under Medicaid. Some of the abuses committed by recipients include forging prescription, giving the medical card to another party, using several cards, duplicating or consuming excessive healthcare services, and selling the items received under Medicaid to others.
Some of the abuses that can be committed by the providers include providing false bills, duplicating bills, providing unwanted medical care, doing unnecessary tests, billing in excess, compromising the quality of care under Medicaid services, and including the names of others in the bills (NY State, 2006).
One of the reasons why Medicaid violations are not given great amount of media attention is because these crimes are usually committed by affluent. These crimes are often great amount of protection and secrecy, so as to gain for profit.
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In the US, it is estimated that Medicaid fraud cost the nation about forty billion dollars in the year 1993. Usually, a certain person rather than an organization would be involved in committing a Medicaid fraud. The White collar staffs who commit these crimes frequently think that they are above the law. They feel that committing such crimes is justified as it is anyway a part of the system. They would go to any extent to cover their crimes. The media would not like to get involved in covering such events, as they feel that they would later be harassed by the White collared staff.
Besides, they also feel that they would not be getting any kind of requests they may have, as the white collared staff would be using their powers to avenge for the media attention given. It is found that the business-minded white collared staffs are more frequently involved in committing Medicaid frauds rather than the professional staff (Cullen, 2008).
The media feels that the people who are victims by the crimes of Medicaid fraud are usually not the class who would be customers to their services.
They may find that covering such events would not be beneficial to them in anyway, and would instead get them in bad looks with the high-class. The poor, elders and the disabled are less likely to be customers of the media services. They would also not stand up to fight their rights. The beneficiaries of Medicaid frequently are not aware of their rights. They may be often abused or neglected by the healthcare organization which may include the white collared staff. Frequently, the person getting abused may be physically and mentally helpless and would depend on the care provider for help.
However, the care giver would be providing low quality healthcare and instead use the funds other Medicaid for other purposes (including gaining profits).
Medicaid fraud is a criminal offence and involves abusing taxpayer’s money. It has been set aside for helping the weaker sections of the society, but instead these funds are ending up in the hands of the rich, thus making the rich richer and the poor poorer. At any cost, the media would have to change their policy of reporting cases of Medicaid fraud to the public.
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White Collar: The term white-collar worker refers to a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work, in contrast with a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor. Typically white collar work is performed in an office or cubicle.The term refers to the white dress shirts of male office workers common through most of the nineteenth and twentieth century in Western ...
