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McCaskill
confronts Medicare Official on Senior
Overpayments for Part D Coverage
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S Senator
Claire McCaskill went toe-to-toe with an
official from Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) about why they were
allowing prescription drug companies to pad
their bottom line by continuing to
overcharge seniors on prescription drug
costs through the Medicare Part D plan.
Arguing that it was the responsibility of
the government program to ensure
beneficiaries were getting what they paid
for, McCaskill requested that the agency
further study how to ensure that burden did
not fall on the seniors.
The Inspector General (IG) for the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
late last year reported that Medicare Part D
had failed to do over 95 percent of required
financial audits.
McCaskill wrote to the agency in January
questioning their poor record of performing
audits designed to uncover overpayments to
prescription drug plans by both CMS and
seniors enrolled in the program.
McCaskill received a dismissive response to
her letter less than 24 hours before a CMS
official testified before a Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs
subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.
In the response, CMS defended their record
and placed the burden on seniors to make
sure they are not over-paying for their
Medicare Part D premiums, prompting
McCaskill to strongly question the
testifying official.
“Are you kidding me? I mean seriously, you
think my mother is supposed to go through
her plan and figure out somehow that she’s
been overcharged and that all she has to do
the next year is to pick a cheaper plan?”
McCaskill said.
“I want to know what you all plan on doing
to get the money back to these seniors who
have been overcharged on these premiums . .
.”
The HHS IG estimates that 80 percent of drug
companies in the Medicare Part D program
overcharged the government in 2006 alone,
and as a result, owe $4.4 billion in
repayments.
Seniors participating in Medicare Part D
have also been overcharged by the
prescription drug companies.
The IG found that 25 percent of reviewed
programs contained errors that “. . . if
corrected, would lead to reduced payments
from CMS, additional benefits to enrollees,
or reduced enrollee premiums.”
Correcting such errors would have resulted
in savings of $8.95 per member per month.
Currently, however, there is no mechanism to
collect money owed to the government and
seniors.
“I just know that the most vulnerable
population we have in this county is being
taken advantage of and if we’re not going to
be their champion –
if the federal government isn’t going
to go to bat for them
– nobody
is.”
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