Improper payments and fraud remain persistent and costly challenges for Medicaid and other government-funded programs. The GAO defines improper payments as payments that should not have been made or that were made in an incorrect amount (including overpayments and underpayments) under statutory, contractual, administrative, or...
A recent audit by the U.S. Government Accountability Office reveals that the federal government suffered a staggering loss of $236 billion in 2023 due to improper payments. Medicaid and Medicare alone accounted for 43% of these payments, with Medicaid's improper payments reaching $50.3 billion. These...
Medicaid improper payments have caused the healthcare program to be on the Government Accountability Office's High-Risk List since 2003. The GAO's list identifies government-funded programs that involve substantial resources and provide critical services to the public that are vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement....
The Government Accountability Office recently published its updated High-Risk List. The update is part of the biennial High-Risk Series started in 1990 that identifies government operations vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. The recent report marks the twentieth consecutive year that the Medicaid program...
Medicaid has been designated a high-risk program by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) since 2003 because of improper payments, poor quality data, and oversight challenges. Earlier this month the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) released its Agency Financial Report. In FY 2021 Medicaid’s...
Medicaid has been designated as a high-risk government program by the GAO since 2003. The Medicaid program has struggled over the past seventeen years due to poor fiscal oversight and other administrative issues. These challenges will be exasperated as the program expands and enrollment surges...
Improper payments in the Medicaid universe are payments full or partial claims payments paid in error or payments made to the wrong party. Improper payments have been a major problem for Medicaid in recent years and have cost the program's valuable resources. Across all government programs, improper payments have...
Identifying third party liability continues to be a challenge under the coordination of benefits for Medicaid plans. By law, plans are payers of last resort so whenever beneficiaries have other active coverage (OHI), those third parties should pay first. Currently, Medicaid plans are required to...
In 1965, Title XIX of the Social Security Act established the Medicaid program to provide health care coverage to low-income individuals. Over time it has developed into one of the nation's largest payers for health care, covering one out of five Americans. In FY 2017,...
Legislation such as the Improper Payments Information Act (IPIA P.L. 107-300) and Executive Order 13520 sought to address improper payments in government-funded programs. IPIA directed federal agencies to report on the number of improper payments occurring and outline what actions are being taken to reduce...