MIAMI – While reporting on Medicare fraud – the nationwide theft of an estimated $60 billion a year – we keep running into outrageous examples of just how bad it is. The following data from South Florida, where authorities say the problem is the worst in the country right now, just might take the cake:

Federal law enforcement officials investigating in Miami-Dade and Broward counties found that from 2002 to present Medicare paid for 89,803 artificial limbs.

That many artificial limbs in just two counties? OK, they're big counties, but experts say it's almost pure fraud, and a disgustingly brazen one at that. As one officials said darkly, "I didn't understand we had landmines down here. This is off the charts."

Sadly, the situation could be even worse. Although $95 million in taxpayer dollars was the amount paid to the people making those outlandish claims, the amount they actually submitted to Medicare in hopes of payment was a stunning $615 million (for a total of 305,935 limbs). In other words, more than $500 million in claims were rejected. A lot of people must have really worked overtime to come up with that many phony bills.

To put it in perspective, we asked the U.S. Department of Defense to tell us how many American service personnel have endured amputations during the full course of the war in Iraq so far. The answer we got back yesterday was 674 through Nov 1 of this year. 

Each one of those numbers represents a serious injury and painful suffering on the part of an American hero. Those war-related injuries and treatments really happened, unlike the mostly fraudulent injury and treatment claims that we all financed via taxpayer dollars in South Florida.

For the sake of argument, if we were to say that each one of those 674 service personnel had lost all four limbs, that would mean the total number of arm and leg prosthetics needed would be 2,696 for the entire Iraq war so far.  That's a made-up number, of course, and much higher than the actual one, but when you compare it to the 89,803 limbs paid for in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale areas alone, along with the bills submitted for 305,935 limbs, it really makes the point.

Eventually, officials say, the people responsible for paying Medicare claims caught on to the prosthetics scam and have brought this particular one under control – but only after  $95 million in payments went out the door.  A little bit of that money went to the many legitimate health care suppliers out there who toil honestly and take a bum rap for all the fraud.  Most of that money, though, went to thieves.

Kirk Ogrosky, a U.S. Justice Department prosecutor who specializes in combating Medicare fraud, says it's critically important to identify and stop the fraud BEFORE payments are made, adding, "It is disheartening to believe that in trying to provide independence and dignity to those who have suffered the loss of a limb that the Medicare program has funded the personal extravagances of crooks who believe the American taxpayers serve as their personal piggy banks."

The newest fraud, officials say, involves home health care, where investigators are seeing millions of suspicious bills for services they strongly suspect were never given – things such as three-hour nurse's visit to give one shot.

While you're chewing on all that, think about this:  Just this week, Congress CUT from next year's omnibus spending bill a proposed increase of $183 million that was supposed to help fight Medicare fraud.

Read and watch Mark Potter's other investigative stories on Medicare fraud:  
Blatant Medicare fraud costs taxpayers billions
Criminals find Medicare easy to defraud

 

Arlington National Cemetery marked a grim milestone today with the burial of its 400th casualty of the war in Iraq.

Navy Chief Petty Officer Mark Carter, 27, of Fallbrook, Calif., was laid to rest the week before Christmas in a ceremony closed to press coverage. He was killed Dec. 11 during combat operations in Iraq.

Four hundred families have now buried their loved ones at Arlington since the cemetery's first Iraq casualty, Army Capt. Russell Rippetoe, was interred on April 10, 2003. Sixty casualties of the war in Afghanistan are also buried at Arlington.

From an early age, Carter's sights were set on joining the Navy's elite Sea Air Land commandos, or SEALs.

"That's all he ever wanted to do," a friend told the North County Times. "His goal in life was to be a Navy SEAL."

Carter hung SEAL posters on his walls and enjoyed such extreme sports as skateboarding, paint ball, and rock climbing.

"He was a bit of a thrill-seeker," a family friend told the Virginian-Pilot.

Carter skipped college and enlisted in the Navy in 1998. He entered the SEAL program the following year. A muscular 5-foot-5 ("just a little fireplug"), he proved his mettle in Iraq and Afghanistan, earning two Bronze Stars for combat valor.

"He was the type of kid you wanted on your side if you were ever in a fight," the family friend told KNSD.

The Navy would say only that Carter died "as a result of enemy action while conducting combat operations in Iraq." He is survived by his parents, three brothers, and four sisters.

MIAMI – My dad recently asked me, "What stories are you working on right now?"

"Well, one story is about LEDs . . ." I started to say.

"Oh! Light-emitting diodes!"

I smiled and looked at him sideways. "Yeeesss. How do you know about LEDs?"

He told me about some of the common uses he was aware of, including use in medical instrumentation, VCRs and traffic lights. Turns out, most of us have had exposure to LEDs whether we've been aware of them or not. 

NBC News/ Stephanie Himango
White LED lights illuminate the trees of New York City's Rockefeller Center.

LED lighting technology has seen significant advances this year, and has made dramatic inroads in the area of holiday lighting in particular. More advances are necessary – and are on the way – before LEDs are truly integrated for mainstream use, in the way we think about regular incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs.

LEDs are small, but their potential is big.

Not just holiday lights
According to the Department of Energy, lighting accounts for about one-fifth of the electricity we use as a nation annually. That is, holiday and general illumination lighting combined account for 21.5 percent of all electricity used in America each year.

LED technology presents potential cost-saving and energy-saving. Consider this: LED lights use roughly 90 percent less energy than incandescent lights.

Assistant Secretary of Energy Andy Karsner says with respect to LED holiday lights, "When you buy them once, you'll probably be buying them for the rest of your life. You won't have to replace them; they won't short out; they don't overheat; they'll last for 40 years or longer."

NBC News/ Stephanie Himango LED globes light up Washington Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The city is a leader in incorporating LED technology into the city's infrastructure.

In fact, Karsner says that if each American household changed just their holiday lighting from regular incandescents to LED bulbs, the country would save at least $160 million collectively this year alone.

And that's just the beginning.

The Department of Energy forecasts that at today's electric rates we could save $10 billion annually if every American were to purchase LED lights instead of standard incandescents for regular at-home lighting.

It is conceivable.

VIDEO: Dreaming of a green Christmas

Karsner says they expect to see LED lights penetrate the marketplace well beyond holiday lights in the coming year. "We're seeing them not only in the automotive industry, in stoplights, in civic applications, but this year they'll be marked up with the Energy Star brand, and you'll see them appearing on store shelves to replace even incandescents and compact fluorescents."

The changes are significant, says Karsner, "We expect a revolution in lighting in this country…within 20 years."

Earlier today, Laura Bush visited sick kids at the Children's National Medical Center, continuing a holiday tradition begun during the Kennedy administration.

The first lady toured a new surgical care unit and spent half an hour with several dozen young patients in the atrium of the hospital in northwest Washington, D.C.

Sitting under a large Christmas tree, she read a version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" that was written in the style of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," but still had Rudolph's red nose saving the day for everyone.

"'Twas the day before Christmas and all through the hills, the reindeer were playing, enjoying their spills ..."

The first lady then showed the children the latest video featuring Barney and Miss Beazley, the Bush family's Scottish terriers.

VIDEO: BarneyCam Holiday in the National Parks

In this one, Barney and Miss Beazley run around the White House listening to one human after another, including President Bush and Laura Bush and their twin daughters as well as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, talk about America's national parks and the dogs' hopes to become junior park rangers.

In the end, the dogs get their wish and Barney and Miss Beazley are annointed junior park rangers. 

After the movie, the first lady agreed to answer a few questions from the kids.

Question: What does Barney like to play with?

Answer: Soccer balls and golf balls.

Question: Does the president have a lot of work to do?

Answer: Yes.

Last question: What's your favorite thing about Christmas?

Answer: Sitting around the Christmas tree with the twins and drinking hot chocolate.

After that, she wished the kids well, said her good-byes, shook hands and posed for photos on her way out of the hospital.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – During ice storms, destruction rains down on neighborhoods one drop at a time. For hours, nothing seems wrong. One drop falls and freezes. The next drop follows, until a light glaze coats tree limbs and parked cars. 

For a while, the roads seem immune to the ice, helped by the earth's radiant heat. But in an instant, it all changes. Highway overpasses go from simply wet to ice sheets in a matter of seconds. There are traffic accidents, hundreds of them, almost simultaneously throughout the region. Emergency crews become overwhelmed.

VIDEO:  Wintry blast in Oklahoma

Still the drops keep falling, and piling up. Here in Oklahoma, three quarters of an inch of ice has coated everything. It's more weight than trees can handle, so their limbs snap, sending hundreds of pounds of wood and ice crashing to the ground.

BANG!

It sounds like gunfire.

BANG!

One branch.

BANG!

Then another.

A slow motion disaster, as this tree takes out a power line and that tree crushes a car.

I stood with a man in Norman, Oklahoma, as he watched the giant red oak tree in his front yard destroy itself - and his roof - one branch at a time. It took hours.

In Oklahoma, more than half a million people are suffering through a cold rain without electricity. Officials here say it's the worst blackout in the state's history. For thousands in this state it will be more than a week before power is back on.

With temperatures back above freezing in Oklahoma, the ice has begun to melt, but the cleanup here will take weeks.

Meanwhile, the storm continues moving north and east, bringing even more destruction to some areas – one drop at a time.

DALLAS – I sat straight up in bed, unsure why, but knowing deep down something was terribly wrong. 

"Why am I awake?" I thought to myself. I looked at the clock: 3:10 a.m.

The sudden movement woke my wife. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I heard something," I said. 

Before she could ask what, we both heard it again.

DING-DONG.

It was the doorbell, and this time the dogs heard it too. The house erupted into chaos.

"It's three o'clock in the morning," my wife said. She has a flair for the obvious.

"I know," I almost shouted, while scrambling out of bed. "This can't be good."

I headed for the bedroom door as thoughts collided in my head: Where are the kids? Did my dad have another heart attack? Is the house on fire?

I could think of no good reason for my doorbell to ring at 3:10 in the morning. My daughters, thankfully, were asleep upstairs. 

A friend of mine was once the victim of a home invasion robbery. Two armed gunmen kicked his door down in the middle of the night … after first ringing the doorbell. He grabbed his own gun and scared the intruders away.

I, on the other hand, grabbed my pants, and struggled to put them on while stepping over the dogs that were also converging on the front door.

In retrospect, I should have at least asked, "Who is it?" But in my rising worry and panic, I simply flung the door open.

There was a woman standing there. I was glad I had pants on.

"Are you Don Teague?" she asked. She was holding a clipboard, and sitting next to her on the porch was a suitcase…MY SUITCASE. Through the fog of sleep, my mind made the connection.

"Are you kidding?"  I replied. "It's three o'clock in the freakin' morning."

"American Airlines," she said. "We found your bag."

This, by the way, was something I already knew. 

The airline had called me earlier in the week to inform me that my suitcase was discovered spinning wearily on a baggage carousel in Atlanta. They had somehow managed to lose it on a non-stop flight from Dallas to Colorado Springs several weeks before.

I had been forced to wear the same pair of pants for three straight days in the mountains. Coincidentally, I was wearing those same pants while staring in dumbfounded disbelief at the woman now standing at my door.

"It's been a month," I said. "I could have waited another six hours."

"It's been a long day," she said. "Do you want your bag?"

I signed the clipboard and took the bag.

"Thanks," I said. "You people are really into returning luggage."

She offered a tired smile, then headed to her delivery van, no doubt to scare the be-jeepers out of some other unlucky traveler. 

There are plenty of them out there. In November, The New York Times reported that U.S. airlines lost one in every 138 bags checked in the first nine months of 2007. That's 3.4 million bags, a 17 percent increase over the same period in 2006. 

And during the holiday travel season the situation is usually even worse.  The overwhelming majority of those lost bags are eventually found and returned to their rightful owners – but still.

As I dragged my wayward suitcase toward the bedroom, I remembered reading somewhere that you're supposed to tip the people who deliver lost luggage. 

"Too late for that," I thought. 

Instead, I stopped in the kitchen, and grabbed the box of dog treats.

"Next time," I said earnestly to the assembled canines, "wake me up before the doorbell rings."  I'm pretty sure they understood.  Either way, they got their treats.

And I got my suitcase. Better late than never.

OMAHA, Neb. –

As I drove from the Omaha airport to the Westroads Mall last night, it was a very familiar feeling, driving to a place I didn't know, in the middle of the night, to cover a truly awful story.

It reminded me of other middle of the night drives, after earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, school shootings, other crimes so sick and twisted it would pale any horror movie ever made.

I don't like horror movies or haunted houses at Halloween. I discourage my kids from both. I tell them, "Life is scary enough." They make fun of me, but I really believe it.

Long before I joined NBC News, I worked in local television as a police and court reporter.

Simply put, I've seen lots of blood on the sidewalk, kids crying for a parent that's never coming home, parents grieving for kids who were in the wrong place, with the wrong people, at the wrong time.

After all that, it still mystifies me when someone commits homicide: the unlawful taking of a human life as it's known in court.

It really mystifies me when a young person does it. What drove a 19-year-old kid to shoot up a suburban shopping mall?

I know all about teenage angst, I have two teenage boys. They are two and a half years younger than the shooter. I just can't imagine what goes through the mind of someone who kills eight people he's never seen before.

In a few days, we'll leave Omaha, and leave the people here to their pain and grief.

But the thing is, just when you think you've seen the worst, the phone rings, you get on a plane, and find yourself driving through an unfamiliar place, in the middle of the night, to another truly awful story.

MIAMI – A short while ago, while reporting on Medicare fraud – an outrageous $60 billion a year pilferage of America's social safety net for 43 million seniors and the disabled – I took one of those phone calls that stop you right in your tracks.

The caller was a federal law enforcement official who has spent much of his career fighting health care theft. He said a man that he and other authorities had been chasing for allegedly running a crooked medical supply company and bilking Medicare had just had an unfortunate run-in with police near Miami.

He and another man were confronted by officers who suspected them of breaking into cars outside a gaming resort. The other man was arrested, but, according to authorities, the one suspected of Medicare theft ran and dove into a lake, where he was promptly attacked and killed by an alligator! What??

Of course, upon hearing this I thought it was a joke and shouted, "You've got to be kidding!" He wasn't. It was true – the sort of morality tale, it seems, you can only hear in Florida.

As outlandish and unbelievable as that story was, however, it actually pales in comparison to the reality of the brazen, organized and widespread looting of Medicare, which seems all-too-easy prey for criminals hiding behind phony medical supply companies and clinics.

Often they pay off busloads of patients, along with unscrupulous doctors, to assure their cooperation. And in the process, they threaten the future of the already-stressed Medicare system and harm millions of honest patients, physicians and other legitimate health care providers.

In Miami-Dade County, where Medicare fraud is considered the worst in the country by federal officials, you can actually go to certain buildings or shopping centers and see row after row of offices or storefronts that purport to be legitimate medical companies. 

FBI agents and prosecutors point out that often these offices are just empty "fronts" or shell companies that only exist to steal from Medicare. They do not have one thing to do with actual health care, but they each bill Medicare for millions of dollars. 

Delving into this morass, you see some disturbing things: low-life criminals living in mansions, wearing fancy jewelry and driving luxury cars bought with Medicare funds; AIDS patients taking money to sit for phony intravenous treatments so the clinic owners can over bill Medicare; and dangerous "medicines" given to the public and billed to Medicare that were homemade in the back of pharmacies by people who have no medical training. Federal officials say one of those people was actually an air-conditioning repairman. 

One purported medical company CEO turned out to be a worker at a tire repair shop. He'd been paid by criminals for the use of his name on the corporate records. Officials say he had enough money in his bank account to fund a federal anti-fraud strike force for six months.

One afternoon, we sat with an 82-year-old woman named Muriel Sherman. Someone stole her patient number, and in the last few years Medicare has been billed for tens of thousands of dollars in her name for treatments and medicines she never got and doesn't need.  

On the books, it would appear she has AIDS and diabetes, is missing an eye, has artificial knees and elbows, needs a wheelchair and is taking enough medication to kill her on the spot – NONE of which is true. 

Muriel is just furious, and has actually gone out on her own to confront the medical supply companies listed on her explanation of benefits (EOB) statements, to no avail. "It's an absolute disgrace that they put on all those things," she said.

Sadly, there are thousands more victims just like her, preyed upon by criminals stealing billions each year from American taxpayers. As experts debate how to fix this enormous problem, it's easy to think again about that alligator.

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. – A bitter wind cut the air and rippled through blue and pink ribbons tied around the trees that line Pheasant Chase Court, the cul-de-sac where Drew Peterson lives. The ribbons are remnants of a vigil for Kathleen Savio and Stacy Peterson – two women, one dead and the other feared dead, both forever tied to Peterson. 

Holiday cheer is hard to come by in this Chicago suburb. The bleak weather reflects the mood of a neighborhood weary of unwanted and unrelenting attention. 

Peterson, the retired Bolingbrook police officer named a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, and questioned by authorities about the death of his third wife, Kathy, is of course the focal point. 

VIDEO: Peterson said to misuse police database

On Monday evening, when asked about new allegations being raised against him, Peterson told  the reporters assembled outside his house that as the holidays approach, the media should use its time and resources to help families in need instead of hassling his.

His sentiments are not shared by Stacy Peterson's family and friends. Pam Bosco, a spokeswoman for her family, shot back that if Peterson really wants to help others and make the media go way, he should share what he knows about the 23-year-old.

Retirement pension in balance
This ill will grows as more information concerning the intertwined investigations creeps to light, the latest development being that Peterson, 53, allegedly used resources available to him as a police officer to gather private information about Stacy's family and friends. If this proves to be true, Peterson's newly approved pension of just over $6,000 a month could be in jeopardy.   

VIDEO: Peterson's lawyer denies wrongdoing

Bolingbrook Police Pension Board attorney Richard Reimer told NBC News that he's dealt with other cases in which officers have been accused of using police computers to conduct background searches. He says doing so is considered "official misconduct," which is a felony, and can be used as grounds for revoking an officer's pension. 

Such a move would probably be welcomed by Bolingbrook Police Chief Ray McGury, who stated he wanted Peterson fired rather than to allow him to retire with full benefits. When the fire and police commission accepted Peterson's resignation from the police force, securing his retirement, it was McGury that forwarded his internal investigation of Peterson to the Will County State Attorney's Office in the hope that criminal charges would be brought against him.

MIAMI – There's a certain lump that swells in the throat when you stare at a casket you shouldn't be seeing. I have experienced that now three times this year – twice with family members gone much too soon and again today with Sean Taylor, just 24 years old.

I didn't know Taylor, but I know how special he was by taking nothing more than a quick glance around Pharmed Arena on the campus of Florida International University Monday, where his funeral was taking place. In the 4,700 seats are people with that familiar look – shock, crippling sadness, anger, disbelief. They all know they're not supposed to be here. But they are.

Before the services began, soft music played while a highlight reel rolled of Taylor playing football for the University of Miami and the Washington Redskins. Other than the strings and melody of the recordings, there was no noise. Just focus. People staring up blankly at two big screens where Taylor was seen delivering crushing blows on opponents, intercepting passes, sacking quarterbacks, celebrating good moments on the field with his teammates.

That is how Taylor is known to football fans across America. Not the image of him alone in a flower-draped coffin, surrounded by lovely floral arrangements on easels, including one bearing his popular jersey number 21.

A large delegation of players, coaches and executives with the Washington Redskins made the trip to South Florida for the services. Many other National Football Leagues players and former University of Miami stars are here too – including the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. There's even been a sighting of O.J. Simpson. 

VIDEO: Sean Taylor remembered

Having worked at one time as a reporter covering the NFL, I know every player who has passed away isn't remembered with such a show of unity. Nothing against those men. This simply shows how treasured Taylor was to a great many people whose lives he touched.

TV satellite trucks are set up all around the arena. We reporters all seem to say the same thing: A life cut short. A player in his prime who delighted crowds. A young father learning the responsibilities of being a dad. A man who wanted nothing more than to get his college degree, which his girlfriend said he was going after starting next month.

Life has a way of interrupting our plans. The four young men charged in Taylor's murder didn't plan on shooting him, much less killing him, according to Miami-Dade police. But they allegedly did.

And here we all are.