U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging
03/28/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/28/2024 20:00
ICYMI—Senator Braun announces GAO audit to uncover Medicare fraud
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 28, 2024
ICYMI-Senator Braun announces GAO audit to uncover Medicare fraud
WASHINGTON-Senator Mike Braun, Ranking Member of the Senate Aging Committee, joined Mornings with Maria on Fox Businessto announce the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) acceptance of his request to audit Medicare following reports of the $2.7 billion Medicare catheter fraud ring and the estimated $60 billion lost to Medicare Fraud a year.
Watch here| Read the story from Fox News here
Partial Transcript
"We wrote a letter to the GAO and just found out that they're going to finally investigate."
"Listen to this, $2.7 billion a year on urinary catheters. Part of $60 billion a year and the Medicare trust fund goes broke in four years. The ineptitude of these agencies and the amount of waste and fraud is unbelievable."
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Senator Braun also joined WRTV to speak about the update of his Medicare audit request and shared information about his bill, the Medicare Transaction Fraud Prevention Act, that he led with Senator Cassidy that will utilize AI to target Medicare fraud.
Background
Recent investigative reports by The New York Times and The Washington Post highlighted a Medicare fraud scheme involving urinary catheters uncovered by the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS). This scheme accounted for a $2.7 billion increase in taxpayer spending on top of the annual $60 billion lost to fraud, waste, and abuse within Medicare.
In January, Senator Braun introduced legislation to create an algorithm-based pilot period of oversight at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) targeted at the irregular billing activity of certain products for the 5% of beneficiaries that already receive electronic notices.
On March 13th, Senator Braun wrote a letter to the GAO with Senators R. Scott and Vance to demand a full audit of Medicare to get to the bottom of $2.7 billion Medicare catheter fraud ring and the annual $60 billion lost to fraud. One week later, the GAO officially accepted the audit request.
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