Medicare Prevention of Fraud & Waste
Reducing fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare is an extremely important topic for seniors. It is well understood that failure to root out and manage fraud costs everyone in higher premiums and taxes.
According to the most recent Annual Report from the Department of Justice on the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program, enforcement efforts have yielded an impressive “return on investment” for the American taxpayer; for every dollar spent on federal health care enforcement, approximately $4 has been recovered and returned.
In addition, TSCL feels that significant parts of the Part D program are not getting proper oversight. Because CMS has been slow to develop estimates of improper payments or recovery plans for improper payments in Part D, concerns are raised for both beneficiaries and taxpayers that scarce program dollars are being misspent.
With the implementation of the health care law many new tools to fight waste, fraud and abuse will be available to agencies. However, Congress should not view the provisions in the law to prevent fraud, waste and abuse as the end-all-be-all of prevention. Continued and increased pressure needs to be applied to ensure that taxpayers, the program and beneficiaries are not cheated and that every dollar is appropriately spent.