Heinz's Last Battle He Was Headed Here To Blast A Medicare Scam

"Good morning," Sen. John Heinz was to have said Friday at the hearing he'd called in Philadelphia to blast telephone marketers of high-priced wheelchairs, heating pads, limb braces and such: "This is the first in a series of hearings (on) how unscrupulous and greedy Medicare providers are bleeding millions of dollars . . ."

For the senior senator from Pennsylvania, it would have been a familiar role - going to bat for older Americans targeted by Medicare hucksters, abused by nursing homes, stripped of disability payments. He was on his way to The Inquirer's Editorial Board to discuss the need for the telemarketing inquiry when he was killed in an aircraft collision.

The cold-blooded scam the hearings sought to expose was - and is - outrageous. It involves "durable medical equipment" outfitters who pack telephone boiler rooms with teenagers and others with no medical background. Then they dial up unsuspecting senior citizens and induce them to accept ''free" medical equipment that, the senator charged, "is rarely needed or beneficial, and may even be dangerous." The hucksters offer cash bonuses to those who accept extra equipment, and it's all charged to Medicare at taxpayer expense.

Pennsylvania is a particularly fertile field for the scam. Its Blue Shield

plans have some of the nation's highest Medicare reimbursement rates for heating pads, canes, braces and such, turning the state into a mecca for the marketers. (They get reimbursed at Pennsylvania's rates no matter where they ship their stuff.)

Mr. Heinz had prepared a stirring opening statement for Friday, pointing up how the fast-buck artists are bleeding Medicare at the very time the elderly are facing benefit cutbacks. Pure John Heinz: Turning up the heat on those who prey on older Americans.

Those Americans have indeed lost a friend. But they shouldn't lose his last fight. We look to federal Medicare officials, the U.S. Attorney and others who would have testified to carry on the cause. In the name of common decency. And the tradition of John Heinz.