Watchdog estimates recent audit of fraudulent Medicaid payments totaling nearly $2 billion ‘is really closer to $60 billion’
A recent audit of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reveals that it directed $2.6 billion worth of taxpayer money toward fraudulent and/or mismanaged Medicaid claims over a period of five years. More than half – $1.6 billion – remains uncollected to cover the agency’s losses.
“In a way, this is a good news, bad news story,” Truth in Accounting’s Director of Research, Bill Bergman, told Watchdog.org. “The good news is that they found the bad news. The bad news is that the dollar amount for the bad news is, indeed, a big number … But this ‘big number’ pales in comparison to unfunded retirement benefits now facing the states, after accumulating for decades off the balance sheet.”