Edmonton Journal
October 5, 2004
Health-care fraud alarm sounded
Auditor criticizes Alberta gov’t for losing track of two million health cards
By Jason Markusoff and James Baxter
(Auditor General Fred) Dunn charged that Alberta Health ignored its own warning in a report from 1998. The ministry’s health-fraud watchdogs had raised the spectre of U.S. citizens using Alberta health-card numbers.
In some health regions near the U.S. border, there were double as many health numbers as there were residents. For Americans without health insurance, medical costs in the U.S. can be astronomical. Alberta health-care cards would be money in their pockets.