KFF Well being Information has sued the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies Workplace of Inspector Common to compel it to launch a spread of Medicare Benefit well being plan audits and different monetary information.
The swimsuit, filed Nov. 12 in U.S. District Courtroom in San Francisco underneath the Freedom of Info Act, or FOIA, seeks paperwork from the HHS inspector normal’s workplace, which acts as a watchdog over federal medical health insurance packages run by the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies.
The swimsuit asks for correspondence and different information of contact between HHS officers or their representatives and Medicare Benefit organizations regarding overpayment audit findings and potential monetary penalties.
It additionally seeks information reflecting communication between HHS and CMS officers concerning the federal government’s insurance policies for recovering overpayments found throughout Medicare Benefit audits, together with a controversial determination in January 2023 to restrict greenback recoveries for audits relationship again a decade or extra.
Moreover, the swimsuit seeks copies of presidency contracts awarded to outdoors corporations which have carried out Medicare Benefit audits, together with budgets and efficiency evaluations, relationship to 2020. In these audits, reviewers take a pattern of 200 sufferers from a well being plan and decide whether or not medical information assist the diagnoses the federal government paid well being plans to deal with.
KFF Well being Information requested the information in August, however, greater than two months later, “no paperwork, responsive or in any other case, have been produced,” the swimsuit says.
Sam Cate-Gumpert, an lawyer with Davis Wright Tremaine, which is representing KFF Well being Information professional bono within the case, stated the data is “critically necessary to public oversight of presidency misspending.”
In keeping with the swimsuit, the inspector normal’s workplace has audited the Medicare Benefit program greater than three dozen occasions since 2019, revealing billions of {dollars} in overpayments.
However authorities officers haven’t recouped the overcharges, in accordance with the swimsuit.
The HHS Workplace of Inspector Common “has left taxpayers footing the invoice for billions of {dollars} in overpayments — despite the fact that HHS OIG’s main function is to fight fraud and waste in Medicare and different federally funded well being packages,” the swimsuit alleges.
“In reality, taxpayers have been pressured to pay for the Medicare Benefit program’s wasteful spending twice — first, due to this system itself, and second, due to the prices of the audits, which the federal government spends tens of millions of {dollars} to conduct,” in accordance with the swimsuit.
Medicare Benefit, largely run by non-public insurance coverage corporations, has enrolled greater than 33 million seniors and folks with disabilities, greater than half of individuals on Medicare.
However this system has confronted criticism that it prices billions of {dollars} greater than it ought to with analysis displaying that many well being plans exaggerate how sick sufferers are to spice up funds.
A FOIA lawsuit filed by KFF Well being Information in September 2019 prompted CMS to launch summaries of 90 Medicare Benefit audits revealing tens of millions of {dollars} in overpayments. As a part of a settlement, CMS paid $63,000 in KFF Well being Information’ authorized charges, although it didn’t admit to wrongfully withholding the information.
The HHS Workplace of Inspector Common had no fast touch upon the swimsuit.
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