“A year after his committee released a major report blasting weak controls against improper Medicaid payments, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has grown impatient with remedies pursued by the Health and Human Services Department.”
“In a June 26 letter to Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee recapped his staff report’s conclusion that anti-fraud specialists at the joint federal-state Medicaid program are failing to effectively combat improper payments, which have risen by 157 percent since 2013. And he asked for progress on state-by-state audits of payments sent erroneously to undeserving recipients…”
“CMS announced new initiatives just days after the committee’s scathing report, he continued. The report documented a large spike in Medicaid overpayments to providers and an increasing number of Medicaid fraud criminal convictions. It also showed that CMS had ‘not taken basic steps to fight Medicaid fraud, including reviewing federal eligibility determinations for accuracy and even creating an antifraud strategy,’ Johnson said.” Read the full article here.
Source: Senate Chairman Presses HHS to Do a Better Job of Curbing Medicaid Fraud – By Charles S. Clark, June 27, 2019. Government Executive.
