Senate probes private Medicare firms

Regulators have been asking questions about Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) for some time. Medicare pays these private companies millions of dollars a year--roughly $300 million annually according to the GAO--to investigate patient complaints and improve care at clinics, hospitals and nursing homes around the country. But (perhaps predictably) not everybody thinks they are doing a very good job. The Senate Finance Committee has launched a wider probe of the 53 registered QIOs that do business with the government. Among the Committee's questions is the non-profit's decision to send board members on retreats to the Cayman Islands and California.

- see this article from The Washington Post