LTE: Memo to AG

Regarding Froma Harrop’s column “Medical costs can be cut without lowering quality, (Wednesday) Harrop makes the case for further government intervention in national health care by citing the fact that in McAllen, Medicare costs are double that of most other cities, while providing inferior results. She documents the profligate use of high-cost procedures and the avoidance of low-cost prevention by area health professionals to explain the gap.

Her mistake in explaining the phenomenon is that she refuses to call it what it is: Medicare fraud. Rather than addressing this as a policy issue on reimbursement, we should treat it as a law enforcement issue.  If Wall Street brokers can be sent to jail for stealing billions, surely corrupt doctors should not be immune.

— Pete Smith, Cypress

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Letters-Judicial-elections-health-care-costs-1729504.php