Home Health & Hospice Week

Although it might feel like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is doing everything it can to keep money away from providers, the White House believes the agency isn’t doing enough to save cash. That’s the takeaway from a recently released letter that Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell back in February, in which he said that the OMB believes “a more aggressive strategy can be implemented to reduce the levels of improper payments we are currently seeing.”

The letter, which was made public after the Center for Public Integrity filed a Freedom of Information Act suit, also said that the Medicare Fee-for-Service improper payment estimate in 2014 was $9.7 billion higher than the previous year, and the Medicaid improper payment amount was $3.1 billion higher than 2013 levels. “The $12.2 billion improper payment amount remains a concern,” Donovan said.

Donovan urged Burwell to find “new and innovative ways to address the problem” and use “every tool at our disposal” in that effort. Look for HHS, as well as its Office of Inspector General, to use new strategies to ensure that mistakes are kept to a minimum.