On the recordMarch 8, 2011
Last week, as chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of Energy and Commerce, I held a hearing on the problem of Medicare fraud. This is not a new issue. It has been a continuing problem with Medicare, and I have been concerned about Medicare fraud for some time here. Last Congress, I introduced a bill to increase the civil and criminal penalties on those who defraud the Medicare program. In fact, in 1990, the Government Accountability Office, GAO, listed both Medicare and Medicaid as high risk because these programs are vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. Now, how badly mismanaged are we talking about? Well, the GAO recently issued a report that there was $48 billion just in improper payments. This isn't fraud. This is just improper payments. So when it comes to fraud, it is estimated anywhere from $60 billion to $90 billion is lost to Medicare fraud every year.
