Draft Report On Medicare Fraud Numbers

Press Release

Draft Report On Medicare Fraud Numbers

Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, with jurisdiction over Medicare, made the following comment on findings in a draft report suggesting that the federal agency responsible for Medicare might have worked to manipulate improper payment rate estimates involving durable medical equipment to make them appear lower than they really were. The New York Times reported on the draft report prepared by the inspector general's office of the Department of Health and Human Services. Grassley has long scrutinized Medicare's improper payment rates for their unacceptably high levels and their methods of calculation. When appropriate, he also has praised the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services for reducing the rates. He made the following comment on the draft report.

"I'm willing to give CMS some leeway, but this is more than just leeway. It's a more than 300 percent change in the error rate. When you find such a big discrepancy, you can't help but be mad and feel you've been misled. I gave CMS credit for doing a good job in 2006, and now we find out the numbers are bogus. I want to know what happened, who's responsible, who will be held accountable, and what the Secretary will do about it. If people cooked the books, manipulated the methodology, or told the contractor to ignore the rules, those individuals need to take the heat."

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