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McCaskill demands accountability for Medicare payments made to dead Doctors…Deceased Doctors received over $76 million since 2000

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill this week took to task government officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for ongoing waste and fraud in their agency that is costing taxpayers millions of dollars every year. 

At a hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Wednesday, McCaskill questioned the agency about their failure to address long-standing problems that allow Medicare claims payments to be made in the names of thousands of deceased doctors. 

 “The idea that this was exposed so long ago and as of May of this year we still have 2900 deceased physicians still active in this database, it’s enough to make you want to tear your hair out.  The sense of urgency appears to be missing,” McCaskill said at the hearing to a CMS official.

The subcommittee found a troubling level of waste within the Medicare program, which has regularly earned a high risk designation from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) since 1990.

According to a report released by the subcommittee this week, Medicare wasted an estimated $12.1 billion in improper claims payments in 2005 alone, with an estimated $21.7 billion dollars improperly paid out in 2004. 

Some of the most egregious waste has been found in payments made to doctors who are deceased.  

From 2000 through 2007, between 16,500 and 18,200 deceased physicians received an estimated 478,500 claims payments worth approximately $76.6 million.  As of May of this year, between 2000 and 2,900 dead doctors were on a list of doctors still receiving payments. 

 Unfortunately, the issue is not new. The Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General office reported in 2001 on this issue and made recommendations to CMS. 

Yet Medicare has repeatedly failed to match their database of doctors to the Social Security Administration’s list of deaths.  Meanwhile, the agency’s Program Integrity Group was spending over $700 million to cut waste at CMS. 

 “The idea that you would be spending $720 million a year, but for six years no one has checked the death database at Social Security for doctors,” McCaskill said.  “Talk about needing to fire some people.” 

 McCaskill also criticized the agency for not taking a more proactive approach to solving the problem.

 “All of the money that you are throwing to these various programs is addressing fraud that has already occurred as opposed to investing that money into prevention. 

“This hearing is a drop in the bucket, I realize that, but it’s a symbolic drop in the bucket.  We’re chasing the cow after it gets out of the barn rather than simply checking the lock on the barn door,” McCaskill said.

McCaskill also suggested that CMS report any deceased doctors found remaining in their files to the attorney general of the state in which they practiced, so the states can further investigate and prosecute those fraudulently receiving Medicare payments.

 “You’ve got 50 attorneys general out there who are staffed and ready to handle these cases,” McCaskill said at the hearing. “Everybody wants to go after people who are preying upon sick people and undermining the Medicare program.”