Senate Republicans have begun "piecing together a crusade" against Medicare fraud in an effort to make the issue an important part of the health care reform debate in the next Congress, CongressDaily reports. Republicans estimate that fraud accounts for 20%, or about $60 billion, of the annual Medicare budget. Sens. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Monday plan to lead a Senate Republican Conference meeting to examine proposals to improve detection and prevention of Medicare fraud, as well as promote a "zero fraud tolerance" agenda to increase penalties and devote more resources to prosecution of fraud.

Martinez said, "We hope, as a result of that hearing, there's going to be a much greater understanding of how big a problem it is." He added that he hopes the campaign against Medicare fraud will become a bipartisan effort. "If we got something good like this done, there will be plenty of credit to go around," Martinez said. According to Ryan Loskarn, a spokesperson for the conference, the campaign against Medicare fraud is part of a larger effort to highlight fiscal responsibility among Republicans. He said, "With this issue, we're reaching out to people who thought we lost our way on fiscal issues" (Edney, CongressDaily, 7/25).

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