Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., told Newsmax on Monday that federal and state officials must do a better job of stopping healthcare fraud before taxpayer dollars are lost to abuse.

Appearing on "Wake Up America," Carter said the problem is especially serious in healthcare, where fraud can spread through federally funded programs administered by states.

"First of all, there is a lot of fraud, particularly in healthcare," he said. "I can assure you of that; I was a hospice provider."

Carter, a pharmacist by trade, said his professional background gives him firsthand understanding of how healthcare programs operate and where oversight failures can occur.

He pointed to reports of 122 hospice providers using the same address as an example of fraud that should have been caught much earlier by federal officials.

"Why is it that we can put a man on the moon, but we only find out about 122 hospices using the same address after the fact?" Carter said.

Carter said the federal government needs enhanced procedures to flag suspicious activity before fraud grows into a larger scandal.

"We've got to do a better job in the federal government of putting procedures in place to catch these things before they get this far," Carter said.

He also cited Minnesota as another example of failed oversight, saying fraud there was not exposed by Washington but by an independent journalist.

"Think about Minneapolis, think about Minnesota and what happened there. Who caught that? Not the federal government," Carter said.

"A 20-something-year-old independent journalist caught that. That had to be brought to our attention," he added.

According to Carter, those failures show that government agencies need stronger safeguards and earlier warning systems to protect public money.

When asked how much Congress can do because many programs are administered by the states but funded by the federal government, Carter said states must be held responsible for how they manage the money.

"Those people who are running those programs in the states, money that we send from the federal government, hard-paying taxpayers that pay this, they deserve to have their money looked after," Carter said.

"The states need to be responsible for that," he added. "They need to be held accountable for that."

Carter said Americans are tired of seeing their tax dollars wasted and support consequences for those who commit fraud.

"I tell you, people are getting tired of this," he said. "People are getting tired of this fraud. They want to see somebody in handcuffs. They want to see somebody in jail."

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