Brickbat: You Are Sick

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department inspector general found that companies selling Medicare Advantage policies had added diagnoses not supported by the customer's medical records in 99.3 percent of the cases it examined. The federal government pays these companies based on a risk score for each customer. The more medical problems the customer has, the higher the payment. The report found that the added diagnoses resulted in the companies getting an extra $6.7 billion in payments from the government.