From the Daily News:

In a bustling black market trade, unscrupulous medical providers are buying Medi-Cal and Medicare patient identity numbers and using them to get reimbursed for millions of dollars in tests and other services that are never provided, authorities say.

Of $34 billion annually spent by the Medi-Cal program for health care for some 7 million poor Californians, state officials estimate that as much as 40 percent or nearly $14 billion is stolen in fraud.

The identity theft scam involves conspirators using stolen patient information purchased for as little as $100. They submit bills for up to $30,000 to cover tests, prescription medicine, wheelchairs and incontinence supplies which are either never delivered or are received and resold on the black market…

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