Medicare Shells Out About $48 Billion In Improper Payments Every Year

Medicare shells out about $500 billion in payments every year, and of that, the Government Accountability Office reports, about $48 billion is in improper payments. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Medicare Integrity Program — which recently got about $1 billion in funding — is designed to address fraud, waste, and abuse. But GAO said managers haven't properly trained the people who are handling the day-to-day operations to see the connection between the daily work, and the overall goal of reducing improper payments. Because MIP is central to CMS' efforts to reduce those improper payments, GAO said staff must be better trained and the data must be improved to better calculate the return on investment.