The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, June 25, 2014, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled “Medicare Program Integrity: Screening Out Errors, Fraud, and Abuse." Gary Cantrell, Deputy Inspector General for Investigations at the HHS Office of Inspector General, Kathleen King, Director of Health Care at the Government Accountability Office, and Shantanu Agrawal, Deputy Administrator and Director for the Center for Program Integrity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service, will testify.
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General recently estimated that improper payments in the Medicare program amounted to nearly $50 billion in fiscal year 2013, approximately $5 billion more than the previous year. The extent of fraud in Medicare is unknown, but several analysts agree that tens of billions of taxpayer dollars are lost to fraud each year. The Energy and Commerce Committee has been steadfast in its oversight of the Medicare program, urging greater efforts by the administration to reduce waste and fraud. This is an important step in strengthening the program, though it is not a complete solution.
“Protecting taxpayer dollars and the Medicare program itself requires ongoing and careful oversight," commented Murphy. “We know that much work remains to be done to ensure the program continues to serve its intended purpose, but identifying and rooting out wasteful and fraudulent spending is a good place to start."
The Majority Memorandum and witness testimony will be available here as they are posted.
