With so much waste and fraud in our federal government, it’s too bad the findings don’t end up causing a change in how the feds do things. The biggest and easiest example of a fixable problem is the 90 healthcare providers still receiving millions from Medicaid. And…why does it take so long to get data from states? The most recent data is from waaay back in 2011…

The federal government paid almost $10 million in medicaid benefits to 200 dead people, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

In just four states in fiscal year 2011, the most recent year in which complete and reliable data was available, investigators found 8,600 cases where individuals were receiving double Medicaid benefits from two or more different states, totaling about $18.3 million. Auditors also found about 90 healthcare providers with suspended or revoked licenses still receiving Medicaid benefits to the tune of $2.8 million.

Watchdogs say the findings, which represent just a small slice of $310 billion in annual Medicaid payments, indicate a much bigger scale of fraud, waste, and abuse that results in hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars being wasted every year.

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“It’s a gigantic problem. What the latest GAO report finds is a drop in the bucket of at least $20 billion annual Medicaid fraud,” said Chris Edwards, a budget analyst at the Cato Institute.

For wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on fraudulent Medicaid payments for individuals who were dead, beneficiaries being paid in multiple states and phony health care providers, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wins this week’s Golden Hammer, a weekly distinction awarded by The Washington Times that highlights examples of waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

Read more: WT

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