Medicare Overpaying for Back Braces, Report Says

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | PoliticsBy Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — You can find it on the Internet for $250 or less. But if Medicare is paying, a standard-issue brace for back patients costs more than $900. In a report expected Wednesday, federal investigators say Medicare paid an average of $919 for back braces that cost suppliers $191 apiece, providing a window on how wasteful spending drives up health care costs. “The program and its beneficiaries could have paid millions of …