South Florida flagged in Medicare fraud report

Only 2% of the nation's Medicare beneficiaries live in South Florida, but that region accounts for 17% of Medicare's total spending on inhalation drugs because of potential fraud, according to a Department of Health and Human Services report. Medicare spent $143 million on claims for drugs to treat respiratory ailments in Miami-Dade County in 2007, which is 20 times more than the amount Medicare spent in the Chicago area, which has twice as many beneficiaries.