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,...
Recent reports from the HHS OIG and the Louisiana Auditor General have indicated a high rate of Medicaid improper payments due to incorrectly determining Medicaid eligibility. The Senate Finance Committee wrote CMS on March 1st to inform the agency of their concerns over the...
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...
Since state Medicaid programs are responsible for the healthcare of several populations, skyrocketing prescription drug costs have become a major budgetary concern. Currently, health care spending is dominating many of their budgets and on a per capita basis, inflation-adjusted retail prescription drug spending has increased...
Medicaid has been designated a high-risk program by the GAO since 2003 due to its size, growth, diversity and oversight challenges regarding improper payments, appropriate use of program dollars, and data. In fiscal year 2018, improper payments represented about 9.8% of the program's total spending...
Medicare and Medicaid accounted for $40 billion dollars in improper payments last year and the Medicaid program has been on the GAO’s High Risk List since 2003 due to inadequate fiscal oversight. However, last month CMS announced that the agency achieved the lowest improper payment...
Of the $4 trillion spent by the government in 2017, nearly $141 billion were improper payments. These are payments made in error either to the wrong recipient, in the incorrect amount, or for a service that is not legitimate. Fraud, antiquated data systems, and methodologies...
In August, the GAO submitted a report to Congress that focused on what CMS would need in order to better target risks and improve Medicaid oversight. The review determined that one of the critical problems the agency is facing is the failure to implement new...
In 2017, improper payments within the Medicaid program reached a total of $37 billion, according to CMS. That equals 10 percent of the federal dollars spent on the program. Moreover, 99.2 percent of the payments made were overpayments. To make matters worse, under the current...
Last month Congress held a hearing concerning the escalating number of improper payments in Medicare and Medicaid. The House oversight panel reviewed concerns regarding escalating improper payment rates discovered by federal oversight groups which include the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Health and Human Services...
