GAO Assesses States’ Efforts to Report Overpayments.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reported on states’ efforts to recover and report Medicaid overpayments identified by federal audits, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) review of state reporting.

The GAO found that from June 2007 through February 2012, states recovered $9.8 million in Medicaid overpayments and were in the process of recovering $3.5 million, totaling $13.3 million in net overpayments.  However, states did not accurately report the overpayments and the return of the federal share to CMS.  According to GAO, states reported the return of the federal share for $12.4 million, instead of reporting $13.3 million in net overpayments.  Further, states correctly reported $6.6 million of the $12.4 million, but reported the remaining $5.8 million on the incorrect line of the CMS-64 form.  The GAO recommended that CMS increase efforts to ensure that states are accurately reporting overpayments identified by federal audits in the correct location of the CMS-64 form.  The Department of Health and Human Services agreed with this recommendation.

The GAO report on State Recovery and Identification of Overpayments is available at:

http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/659501.pdf.

Government Accountability Office.  “CMS Should Ensure That States Clearly Report Overpayments.”  GAO-14-25.  6 Dec. 2013.