TY  - JOUR
AU  - Becker,David
AU  - Kessler,Daniel
AU  - McClellan,Mark
TI  - Detecting Medicare Abuse
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10677
PY  - 2004
Y2  - August 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10677
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10677.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David Becker
School of Public Health
University of Alabama at Birmingham
RPHB 330
1530 3rd Ave South
Birmingham, AL 35924-0022
Tel: 205/975-0532
Fax: 205/934-3347
E-Mail: dbecker@uab.edu

Daniel Kessler
Hoover Institution
Stanford University
434 Galvez Mall
Stanford, CA  94305
Tel: 650/723-0596
E-Mail: fkessler@stanford.edu

Mark B. McClellan
Director, Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform
Senior Fellow, Economic Studies
Leonard .D. Schaeffer Director's Chair in
Health Policy ,The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 741-6567
Fax: NA
E-Mail: mmcclellan@brookings.edu
AB  - This paper identifies which types of patients and hospitals have abusive Medicare billings that are responsive to law enforcement. For a 20 percent random sample of elderly Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized from 1994-98 with one or more of six illnesses that are prone to abuse, we obtain longitudinal claims data linked with Social Security death records, hospital characteristics, and state/year-level anti-fraud enforcement efforts. We show that increased enforcement leads certain types of types of patients and hospitals to have lower billings, without adverse consequences for patients' health outcomes.
ER  -