Senate Requests Quarterly Updates on Fraud, Waste and Abuse from the OIG and CMS.

The Senate Finance Committee recently released a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requesting quarterly updates on fraud, waste, and abuse prevention and detection efforts in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The Senate Finance Committee is specifically requesting that the OIG and CMS submit quarterly reports outlining how the offices are using new fraud, waste, and abuse resources provided under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. According to the letter, the OIG and CMS are required to provide data, benchmarks, and updates on the number of fraud cases. In addition, the offices will be required to report any savings to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The OIG and CMS are expected to begin submitting quarterly reports in May. Senate Committee on Finance. “Baucus, Hatch Request Quarterly Reports on New Efforts to Crack Down on Waste, Fraud, Abuse in Medicare, Medicaid.” News Release. 24 Mar. 2011.