Lee Terry: “I am a cosponsor of H.R. 1827, the Government Waste Corrections Act. I commend our leadership for bringing this bill to…”

“I am a cosponsor of H.R. 1827, the Government Waste Corrections Act. I commend our leadership for bringing this bill to the floor. At a time when there is a lot of talk about reducing waste, fraud and abuse in executive branch programs, I am pleased that the House is taking some action. I want to express particular concern about HCFA, and that agency's lax oversight of Medicare contractors. By HCFA's own admission, billions of dollars are lost through waste and abuse each year. Testimony from GAO, as well as the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, has documented that Medicare contractors have improperly paid claims and failed to recoup overpayments to providers. Recently, GAO has cited 'integrity problems' and 'pervasive' fiscal mismanagement among Medicare contractors. This has included such questionable activity as arbitrarily turning off computer audits of claims, altering documents that involved questionable claims, and even falsification of documents and reports to HCFA. Yet these contractors are the very same companies that are supposed to be HCFA's front line force for the identification and recovery of Medicare overpayments. There is an inherent conflict of interest in having Medicare contractors both pay for provider claims and then audit their own performance. This certainly is not the way that insurance companies in Omaha and across the country do business.”