Bilirakis Reviews Issues in Medicaid Program
Today, the Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health held a hearing to review recent reports regarding issues in the Medicaid program and exchange eligibility for the president's health care law.
Recent reports unveiled significant shortcomings in the implementation of the law. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is not adequately detecting errors in the system leading to duplicate coverage and payments and high potential for fraud.
Government Accountability Office Health Care Director Carolyn Yocom, and Forensic and Investigative Audit Services Director Seto Bagdoyan testified. Members and witnesses reviewed the many issues highlighted in the GAO's reports and discussed how to address these problems.
"These failures in the system must be addressed immediately," said Congressman Bilirakis. "Inaccuracies in the program can affect millions of people and cost billions of dollars. As the federally-subsidized exchange coverage under the Affordable Care Act enrollment period approaches, we must examine such flaws and find solutions."
Congressman Bilirakis questioned the panel on their oversight efforts, challenges in their measuring procedures, errors identified, and whether or not CMS has a plan to address these issues in the immediate future:
"The GAO report revealed that ineligible individuals qualified for Medicaid or could receive illegal subsides for health plans on the exchange. No verification is being done to see if employer sponsored health plans are being offered to consumers. Despite having ample time to fix the problems GAO has detected, CMS has not made changes to address these issues. We must continue our work to address these issues and ensure our health care system is cost efficient, safe, and reliable."
Learn more about the Congressman's work to improve health care here.