Now, just who does this hurt? Who seems to be making profits? "Insurance companies reimburse rural hospitals at higher rates to help keep critical healthcare in those communities. Those higher rates have made rural hospitals attractive targets for schemes that have generated nearly half a billion dollars in allegedly fraudulent billing." Does this reflect the amount of taxes collected in these communities, those taxes which would support a rural hospital? Missouri state auditor Nicole Galloway began examining the finances of several rural hospitals in her state. Missouri state auditor Nicole Galloway's team discovered a management company called Hospital Partners had swooped in weeks before Putnam was about to close, promising to turn it around. They made deals with labs around the country to funnel billing for blood tests and drug screens through Putnam, which collects higher reimbursement rates as a rural hospital. Putnam kept about 15 percent; most of the money was wired back to the labs and the management company. Who made away with all this money and where did it end up? Who pays the penalty for this horrible act? What about the health care for all those in the rural area. Questions upon questions. What are the legal expenses going to be for the community? "Essentially the hospital appeared to act as a shell company for these questionable lab billings," Galloway explained. "In a six-month period, the hospital funneled through about $92 million in revenues. To put that in perspective, the previous year their total revenues were $7.5 million." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/questi...-costing-health-insurance-companies-millions/
