CMS still hasn’t recouped $1.8B in Medicaid overpayments identified in OIG audits

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has failed to recover more than half of the nearly $3 billion in Medicaid overpayments identified by auditors over an 11-year period. The main reason for the delay is that the agency’s policy does not include timelines for resolving overpayments when state agencies disagree with auditors’ findings. All told, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) identified $2.7 billion in Medicaid overpayments in 313 audits issued between 2010 and 2015, and $225.6 million in 10 audits between 2004 and 2009. As of December, CMS hadn’t collected $1.8 billion of those payments, according to an OIG report (PDF) issued this week.