Chuck Grassely
Q: How is waste, fraud and abuse weakening Medicare for current and future generations?
A: Seniors and people with disabilities depend on Medicare for their health care coverage, including more than 650,000 Iowans.
Every dollar lost to waste, fraud and abuse rips off the taxpayer and skims resources intended for Medicare patients. That's why I keep my nose to the grindstone in Washington to conduct aggressive oversight, root out bad actors and help secure fiscal integrity and compliance with federal health care programs.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is the federal agency responsible for managing these public health insurance programs.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the fiscal year 2022 net spending for Medicare was $768 billion and $589 billion for Medicaid. That's why even a fraction of improper payments adds up to big money.
For example, CMS reported an improper payment error rate of 5.42 percent for the most recent available data in calendar year 2020 for Medicare Advantage Plans, or Medicare Part C. That's approximately $13.94 billion in gross payment error for a 12-month period.
As then-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I helped shepherd Medicare Part C into law two decades ago. The program is increasingly popular among Medicare recipients as it provides additional coverage beyond traditional Medicare, such as benefits for vision, dental, prescription drug and home health visits. Medicare Advantage is on...
Over the last year, beyond traditional healthcare and federal procurement matters, the government has pursued federal False Claims Act (FCA) investigations and enforcement across high-risk areas, i...