Obama Criticizes Insurance Companies, White House Reveals Plan to Fight Medicare Fraud

Published: Thu 11 Mar 2010

Wendy Blair

President Obama intends to unveil a new campaign to fight fraud and waste in Medicaid and Medicare and other government health programs through heavier use of payment recapture audits, the White House announced yesterday.

The audits provide financial incentives to specialized private auditors to discover improper payment activity and have proven very effective in pilot tests, the White House reports.

A memorandum from the president would compel all federal agencies and departments to intensify and expand the use of payment recapture audits with their present authority.

Rampant Fraud

In 2009, improper payment activity amounted to $98 billion, with $54 billion resulting from Medicaid and Medicare, the White House reported.

"The fact is Washington is a place where tax dollars are often treated like Monopoly money, bartered and traded, divvied up among lobbyists and special interests. And it has been a place where waste-even billions of dollars in waste-is accepted as the price of doing business," said President Obama in a statement.

A test program sponsored by Medicare in three states-New York, California, and Texas-from 2005-2008 reclaimed $900 million, the White House said.