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According to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Medicaid is the most fraud-ridden program in the entire federal government. 

Per the report, “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has taken steps, but further efforts are needed to reduce improper payments, ensure the appropriate use of program dollars, and improve program data.”

Unfortunately, in the 18 years that Medicaid has been deemed a “high risk” program, little progress has been made in combating the improper payments that have become rampant throughout the program.

As the report notes, “In fiscal year 2020, Medicaid covered an estimated 77 million low-income and medically needy individuals at a cost of $673 billion, of which $419 billion was financed by the federal government. … Medicaid improper payments represented about 21.4 percent of federal program spending—more than $85 billion—in fiscal year 2020, an increase of nearly $30 billion from 2019.”

Moreover, “States have increased their reliance on provider taxes and local governments to finance the nonfederal share of Medicaid spending, particularly for supplemental payments to providers. These payments are not linked to claims for beneficiary services and represent a growing share of Medicaid spending, totaling more than $46.3 billion in 2017, the most recent year for which data are available.”

And, “CMS’s oversight of Medicaid often relies on state-reported expenditure and utilization data. Incomplete and inconsistent state data complicate program oversight.”

In other words, Medicaid—one of the largest government programs in existence—is fraught with waste, fraud, and abuse.

read more:

https://redstate.com/heartlandinstitute/2021/09/08/new-report-shows-massive-fraud-in-medicaid-n439675