Fighting fraud is critical to both of these and critical to being responsible stewards of taxpayers' dollars, an issue where we should be able to achieve bipartisan consensus.

Now, there remains significant interest in Congress about antifraud efforts in Medicare and Medicaid.

Finally, members from both sides of the aisle have stated that Congress should promote policies that encourage young people to purchase health coverage.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

According to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in 2011, Medicare spending accounted for 21 percent of total national health expenditures.

CMS estimates that out of that $555 billion, $44 billion--nearly 8 percent--were improper payments.

Again, credit card companies figured this out 25 years ago, and it seems like we ought to be farther along than we are now.

In 2012, Medicare spent approximately $555 billion caring for more than 49 million beneficiaries.

We also need to ensure that the public and private sectors are collaborating, because we know that schemes that affect programs like Medicare and Medicaid often are also perpetrated against private payers as well.

I haven't seen one indication that CMS truly knows how much it loses each year much less whether a majority of these payments are not usually fraudulent.

How can we protect the most vulnerable in our society if we don't protect the integrity of the system that was intended to serve them?

I have dedicated much of my career in Congress to improving the quality and efficiency of both the Medicare and Medicaid programs.