A motel owner, a restaurateur, and the proprietor of an air-conditioning company, all of whom claimed to be indigent in order to receive free health care at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, were discussed in a story aired on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Aug. 16. The topic of the story was Dallas County’s prosecution of insurance fraud cases--16 to date, with 190 more pending. Healthcare “scofflaws” have cost the county $25 million by claiming to be unable to pay for their health care, said the news story. According to the story, the federal government estimates that as much as 10 percent of U.S. healthcare expenditures are the result of fraud. (Read “Lessons Learned at Parkland: How One Hospital Reworked Its Front End,” in the March 2007 issue of hfm.)
