House Republicans seek to cut HCFA’s fraud budget
Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) Deputy Administrator Mike Hash told the House Ways & Means Health Subcommittee that freezing the agency's budget for the Medicare Integrity Program (MIP) would have a "devastating" impact on the agency's ability to combat fraud and abuse in the Medicare program. But Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-CT) lays the blame for the freeze squarely at the doorstep of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG).
Hash's assertion and Johnson's response came during a sharp exchange between Republicans and Democrats at a subcommittee hearing late last month. Johnson lashed out at what she called the excesses and "egregious activities" of the OIG, but offered no specifics. At stake is an effort by a House Appropriations subcommittee to freeze expenditures for not only MIP but the OIG, as well.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) dedicated $630 million to fund MIP in FY 2000. Instead, Republican appropriators are trying to cap it at the current level of $560 million. Notably, HIPAA also authorized $100 million for the past two years for Medicare+Choice consumer education. But Republican appropriators want to drop that number from the current $95 million to $15 million.
Those reductions, which are included in a House Appropriations mark, may or may not see the light of day, House Appropriations staff admit. The latest proposal in the Senate would increase spending for MIP and Medicare+Choice to the $630 million and $95 million called for by HIPAA. For its part, the White House is renewing efforts to boost Medicare+Choice education dollars to $150 million.
"Ordinarily, none of this would have to go through the appropriations process because it was dedicated funding," says a HCFA spokesperson. "The fact that it showed up in the bill at all was a little unusual, but doing it that way lets them try to cut $70 million from MIP."
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