Subject: Republicans Accuse Obamacare Administrator of Misleading Congress

Andy Slavitt, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, gave false testimony to Congress on the state-based exchanges established under Obamacare, according to a report by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Slavitt was questioned about the status of taxpayer dollars invested in state-based exchanges at a hearing on December 8, 2015, according to the committee report. The hearing was held to determine how state-based exchanges spent grant money.

“When asked under oath about the status of American taxpayer dollars invested in the exchanges, Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in December 2015 that [the state-based exchanges] returned over $200 million in grant dollars to the federal government,” the report states. “But information and documents CMS recently provided to the committee fail to corroborate Mr. Slavitt’s testimony and raise significant questions regarding the truthfulness of his statements.”

The committee requested documents from the agency to corroborate Slavitt’s claim but found that the agency only had recovered $21.5 million in federal grant dollars from the exchanges. Slavitt overstated the amount returned to the Treasury by nearly $180 million.

“Mr. Slavitt’s testimony misled the committee in two ways: he misstated the amount of grant money returned to the Treasury, and he wrongfully implied that the funds were returned because of improper spending and CMS’ oversight efforts,” the committee wrote.

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