GAO testifies on US Medicaid Integrity Program

The US Government Accountability Office has testified to the US Senate's subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security (which is part of the Senate's Committee of Homeland Security and Government Affairs) about the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) measures to establish a new body called the Medicaid Integrity Program.

The purpose of the MIP is to control fraud and abuse in the amount of payments for Medicaid-related benefits. The GAO found that the number of staff allocated to this problem in the fiscal year 2004 was inadequate, compared with the scale of the task. Fewer than nine full-time staff were deployed to assist the 50 US states on scrutinizing $168.0 billion in payments, the subcommittee heard.