Gina
05-28-2012, 12:21 PM
Big shock, I know!
Link (http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/watchdogs-hhs-loses-millions-medicare-charges/566261)
Medicare has been around nearly five decades - since 1965 - so one might think the government would have figured out how to run the program properly.
But for some reason the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hasn't got there yet, with a result being that it issues hundreds of millions of dollars in overpayments every year that it can't collect. Worse still, it appears from a May 18, 2012, HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report that CMS doesn't have a system in place to cure the problem.
"As of October 8, 2010, CMS had not collected the majority of overpayment amounts identified in OIG audit reports. Of the 154 OIG audit reports with sustained overpayment amounts totaling $416,287,546, CMS reported collecting $84,168,502," the report said.
"Specifically, CMS reported collecting the full sustained amounts totaling $83,272,666 for 113 reports and partial sustained amounts totaling $895,836 for 8 reports. However, CMS did not collect the remaining $332,119,044," the report said.
The reason that $332 million went uncollected is due to "time constraints imposed by the statute of limitations on overpayment collections. In addition, it did not provide its contractors with adequate guidance for collecting overpayments and did not have an effective system for monitoring its contractors’ collection efforts.(emphasis added)"
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Go Here (http://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region4/41003059.pdf) to read OIG's recommendations on what must be done to solve these problems. Curiously, CMS officials disagreed with recommendation number five, which said CMS should verify that overpayments it reports as being collected have actually been collected.
Link (http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/watchdogs-hhs-loses-millions-medicare-charges/566261)
Medicare has been around nearly five decades - since 1965 - so one might think the government would have figured out how to run the program properly.
But for some reason the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hasn't got there yet, with a result being that it issues hundreds of millions of dollars in overpayments every year that it can't collect. Worse still, it appears from a May 18, 2012, HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report that CMS doesn't have a system in place to cure the problem.
"As of October 8, 2010, CMS had not collected the majority of overpayment amounts identified in OIG audit reports. Of the 154 OIG audit reports with sustained overpayment amounts totaling $416,287,546, CMS reported collecting $84,168,502," the report said.
"Specifically, CMS reported collecting the full sustained amounts totaling $83,272,666 for 113 reports and partial sustained amounts totaling $895,836 for 8 reports. However, CMS did not collect the remaining $332,119,044," the report said.
The reason that $332 million went uncollected is due to "time constraints imposed by the statute of limitations on overpayment collections. In addition, it did not provide its contractors with adequate guidance for collecting overpayments and did not have an effective system for monitoring its contractors’ collection efforts.(emphasis added)"
---
Go Here (http://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region4/41003059.pdf) to read OIG's recommendations on what must be done to solve these problems. Curiously, CMS officials disagreed with recommendation number five, which said CMS should verify that overpayments it reports as being collected have actually been collected.