The medical suppliers used the ID numbers of the dead physicians to bill the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for wheelchairs and other home equipment, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

"These scam artists have treated Medicare like an ATM machine, drawing money out of the government's account with little fear of getting caught," says Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., of the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The panel is conducting an investigation into waste, fraud and abuse in the federal health program that serves more than 43 million elderly and disabled Americans.

Investigators told the committee Tuesday that they uncovered the dead doctor scam by obtaining a list of physicians who died between 1992 and 2002. They randomly selected 1,500 names from the list and found claims filed by the dead doctors.