An Obama program made over $729 million in erroneous payments to doctors, and as if that isn’t bad enough, this includes payments made to dead doctors.
The inspector general stated that there was “minimal oversight” of the program and payments and that it was “vulnerable to fraud and abuse.”
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
An Obama administration program to encourage the use of electronic health records made over $729 million in erroneous payments, according to a new audit.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also paid dead doctors for enrolling in its program, the audit, released by the agency’s inspector general Monday, revealed.
“From May 2011 through June 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services paid an estimated $729 million in Medicare electronic health record incentive payments to eligible professionals who did not comply with Federal requirements,” the inspector general said. “In addition, it paid $2.3 million in inappropriate electronic health record incentive payments to eligible professionals who switched incentive programs.”
. . . . The inspector general found the government has “conducted minimal” oversight over whether doctors met program requirements, leaving the program “vulnerable to abuse and misuse of Federal funds.”
The inspector general said doctors who received $729 million were ineligible because they did not use certified electronic health record technology enough, or did not have documentation to back up their claims. Requirements for the program include providing patients with their health information online.
The government also overpaid doctors who were enrolled in incentive programs for both Medicare and Medicaid by more than $2.3 million. Doctors cannot receive payments from both programs during the same year.
In addition, the inspector general identified one deceased doctor who was paid $11,760, and two deceased doctors who are still active in the government’s payment systems. Eleven dead doctors were deactivated from the program from than two months after they had died.
Your tax dollars at work.
Join the conversation!
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please hover over that comment, click the ∨ icon, and mark it as spam. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.