WASHINGTON, DC - The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), has announced a hearing for Tuesday, May 24, 2016, at 10:15 a.m. in room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “Medicare and Medicaid Program Integrity: Combatting Improper Payments and Ineligible Providers."
Subcommittee members will have the opportunity to discuss troubling findings from the HHS Office of the Inspector General (HHS OIG) and the nonpartisan GAO about high improper payment rates and ineligible providers who collect money from Medicare and Medicaid. In some cases, CMS has not yet implemented OIG recommendations that would have addressed these problems.
These reports show how some unscrupulous providers continue to abuse the system and defraud these programs. For example, CMS failed to notice when providers listed the address of a Five Guys restaurant, or a UPS store, when enrolling to collect money through Medicare. And CMS also did not properly remove physicians who been convicted of serious crimes, including health-care fraud or patient abuse.
“Between 2013 and 2015, improper payments under the Medicare Fee-for-Service plans alone totaled $125 billion, this is simply unacceptable," said Murphy. “Examining program integrity is a critical component to ensuring CMS gets a handle on improper payments and fraud. They must do better, and next week we’ll continue examining the integrity of these two critical programs."
The Majority Memorandum, witness list, and witness testimony will be available here as they are posted.
