Today the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported a Medicare payment errorrate for Fiscal Year 2004 of 9.3 percent, representing $19.9 billion in improper payments toproviders. Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance, made the followingcomment on today’s announcement.
“Understanding the and scope of a problem is the key to solving it. And with animproper payment amount of nearly $20 billion and an error rate approaching double digits, thereis clearly an unacceptable problem here. I appreciate CMS’ effort to get a more complete, accurateMedicare error rate. The agency has made progress, and that means the public is getting a fullerpicture of the amount of improper payments. However, CMS must work even more aggressively tostem the tide of this error rate and work closely with the Justice Department and the InspectorGeneral in the pursuit of waste, fraud and abuse. Improper payments jeopardize Medicare’s abilityto treat a growing population of beneficiaries. They have to stop."
Source: Ranking Member’s News
