{"id":122336,"date":"2020-11-28T21:01:26","date_gmt":"2020-11-28T18:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/medicaid-hemorrhaging-100b-on-americans-ineligible-for-the-program\/"},"modified":"2020-11-28T21:01:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T18:01:26","slug":"medicaid-hemorrhaging-100b-on-americans-ineligible-for-the-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/medicaid-hemorrhaging-100b-on-americans-ineligible-for-the-program\/","title":{"rendered":"#Medicaid hemorrhaging $100B on Americans ineligible for the program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Medicaid hemorrhaging $100B on Americans ineligible for the program<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n                        Medicaid is meant to cover health care and long-term care for lower-income Americans. But a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/newsroom\/fact-sheets\/2020-estimated-improper-payment-rates-centers-medicare-medicaid-services-cms-programs\">new report<\/a> reveals the government \u2014 both in Washington and in state capitols across the country \u2014 is failing to ensure that only people who are eligible for Medicaid are enrolling.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government\u2019s improper Medicaid payments now exceed $100 billion a year. This means that more than one-in-four dollars flowing out of Medicaid \u2014 our nation\u2019s third-largest government program \u2014 do not meet program rules. This staggering failure doesn\u2019t just reduce health-care access for the truly eligible, it also harms taxpayers who fund it.<\/p>\n<p>The main problem is that states are not verifying people\u2019s eligibility. In fact, \u201cthe required verification of eligibility data, such as income, was not done at all\u201d in many cases, according to the report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The report also suggests that many people remain on Medicaid well past the time they were initially eligible.<\/p>\n<p>CMS examined states each year from 2017-2019 for its 2020 report \u2014 which was entirely pre-coronavirus. The report showed an improper payment rate of 21.4 percent \u2014 a total of $86.5 billion \u2014 but the actual amount is much higher, because eligibility audits were not conducted in the year 2017. If you only count the two years where an eligibility audit was performed, the improper payment rate is actually 27 percent \u2014 and improper federal spending totals more than $100 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The Obama administration canceled the eligibility audits from 2014 to 2017 \u2014 the first four years of ObamaCare\u2019s Medicaid expansion \u2014 to build political support for its signature law by maximizing enrollment, even if it was unlawful. They were successful. Millions of ineligible people <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mercatus.org\/publications\/healthcare\/aca-medicaid-expansion\">enrolled<\/a> in Medicaid.<\/p>\n<p>ObamaCare created a new class of Medicaid enrollees \u2014 non-disabled, childless, working-age adults \u2014 for whom the federal government reimburses no less than 90 percent of the cost. Since their coverage is financed almost entirely by federal dollars, states loosened eligibility reviews and increased payments to health insurers, who <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/The-Profitability-of-Health-Insurance-Companies.pdf\">reaped<\/a> massive profits from ObamaCare\u2019s Medicaid expansion.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16690308\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img class=\"size-large wp-image-16690308 lazyload\" alt=\"The first four years of Obama's medicaid expansion was successful, even though it was unlawful.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/obama-signs-affordable-care-act1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/obama-signs-affordable-care-act1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640 640w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/obama-signs-affordable-care-act1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/obama-signs-affordable-care-act1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/obama-signs-affordable-care-act1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2000 2000w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span>After Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, Americans weren\u2019t tested for their Medicaid eligibility for four years \u2014 enabling millions to unlawfully enroll.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Because Washington pays nearly two-thirds of the total Medicaid tab, states do not spend with an eye toward value. Program integrity efforts, like ensuring only eligible people enroll, almost always get short shrift. But the primary job of executive branch agencies, like CMS, is to implement the law and ensure enrollees and taxpayers are well-served.<\/p>\n<p>Before the year ends, the Trump administration can take one important and overdue step to address Medicaid\u2019s improper payments, which have soared with ObamaCare\u2019s expansion. CMS should finalize a fiscal accountability <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.healthaffairs.org\/do\/10.1377\/hblog20200331.308494\/full\/\">rule<\/a> that would enhance Medicaid program integrity. This rule would require states to report to CMS where the $600 billion of Medicaid expenditures \u2014 including the $400 billion of federal tax dollars \u2014 is going. It also limits accounting gimmicks that some states use to rip off federal taxpayers.<\/p>\n<p>While much more work needs to be done to reform Medicaid, including ensuring only eligible people are enrolled, greater transparency would be a good first step toward limiting widespread waste, fraud, abuse, and misspending.<\/p>\n<p><em>Brian Blase served as a special assistant to President Trump at the National Economic Council, 2017-19. He is CEO of Blase Policy Strategies and a senior research fellow at The Galen Institute and The Foundation for Government Accountability.<\/em>\n            <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/11\/28\/medicaid-hemorrhaging-100b-on-americans-ineligible-for-the-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Medicaid hemorrhaging $100B on Americans ineligible for the program&#8221; Medicaid is meant to cover health care and long-term care for lower-income Americans. But a new report reveals the government \u2014 both in Washington and in state capitols across the country \u2014 is failing to ensure that only people who are eligible for Medicaid are enrolling&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/medicaid-bleeding-out.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[82056,73014,71060,82119,73015],"class_list":["post-122336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-11-28-20","tag-health-care","tag-health-insurance","tag-medicaid","tag-obamacare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}