Sorry, this was 'ordinary' doctors, hospitals and services.
SOP. Medicare won't buy any appliance like this, only rent it. If you're not on Medicare, you can buy it for the price of three or four rental payments. The lessor doesn't want it back, because they're still billing Medicare for it. It's part of the system's built in stupidity.
Her husband died tragically and the hospital billed Medicare for surgical services that were not performed. When she complained to Medicare, they encouraged her to ‘work with the hospital on that’. They didn’t care one whit.
Not surprised at all by Medicare's response. But I suspect that there is something more to the story.
We often get billing that is intended for another party. Medicare almost never catches it. When we do, they consider it an imposition.
The system is complex and fraught with mistakes. My wife is an accountant...and it's a giant task to match up the amounts billed by the vendors with the amounts paid by Medicare. Most people don't bother...and I don't blame them.