Why not pursue Medicare abuses?
Re: the April 1 article βMedicare changing how it pays for knee and hip replacements.β
The article says Medicare will experiment with changes to the hip and knee replacement payment program in hopes of saving $343 million over five years.
The article also says Medicare spent $7 billion taxpayer dollars in 2014 for hip and knee replacement hospitalizations alone. That would be $35 billion taxpayer dollars for hip/knee replacements over five years.
So, we are going to spend how many dollars for this experiment in order to save less than 1 percent of the total Medicare taxpayer dollars spent on hip and knee replacement. As a taxpayer, I would much rather see the government spend the money on cutting waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare program.
I believe we could easily save at least 10 percent (or more) of total Medicare dollars by hiring more investigators to work on waste/fraud/abuse in Medicare spending. We donβt seem to have anyone in government who can think big when it comes to saving money. A 1 percent savings is puny.
Jerry Bich
Oro Valley
Legislators: Hart should quit UA over DeVry
Re: the March 24 guest opinion βResign: Hartβs DeVry ties incompatible with UAβs interests.β
We are Rep. Macario Saldateβs colleagues in the Arizona Legislature, who fully support the position he expressed in his guest opinion. He wrote:
βPresident Hartβs involvement with a for-profit university...does not further the fight for our universities β¦ I ask her to make a choice: Either resign her position on the DeVry University board or step down as president of the University of Arizona.β
In light of her decision not to resign her position on the DeVry University board, we now ask Dr. Ann Weaver Hart to step down as president of the University of Arizona.
We commend Rep. Saldate for taking this stand and add our names to the list of people concerned with President Hartβs actions.
Representatives:
Lela Alston
Richard Andrade
Jennifer Benally
Mark Cardenas
Ken Clark
Diego Espinoza
Charlene Fernandez
Rosanna GabaldΓ³n
Sally Ann Gonzales
Albert Hale
Stephanie Mach
Debbie McCune Davis
Juan Mendez
Lisa Otondo
Rebecca Rios
Ceci Velasquez
Bruce Wheeler
Senators:
Olivia Cajero Bedford
Robert Meza
Catherine Miranda
Lupe Contreras