Medicare: French card may offer billions in savings on administrative costs

I had a similar experience a little over a year ago with a government health care program. The stupid thing about all those extra forms was, after the first one, everything was already in the computer. Here, they do it in these larger facilities to find out if someone isn't truthful - or thorough, depending. It's a monumental waste of everyone's time. AND, after the info is put in, it just takes one careless mistake in input for someone to screw up the real information - as in, more possibilities for error. So the efficiency that is supposed to be achieved is moot.

No doubt, there'll be some who come up with the conspiracy theory-type arguments - government then has all your info, invasion of privacy, blah, blah, blah, but the fact is, now that medical records are computerized, and since Medicare IS a government program, of course the government has that information. How else is it supposed to detect the fraud that the very same detractors moan and scream about?

Another idea would be for the patient to be able to obtain a print-out, on request, every three months so the patient can check for accuracy and proper billing. If something appears on the records that's incorrect, or if extra billing has occurred, the patient should be able to alert some government office to have that looked at. We've seen many stories on Vine alone about Medicare patients questioning what was billed and that wrongful billing was stopped. This card could be a very good way for everyone to keep tabs on Medicare costs.