A report issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget found that Medicare, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage programs spent $54 billion in improper payments for healthcare in fiscal year 2009.

The Nov. 17 report concluded that Medicare fee for service improperly spent $24 billion in fiscal 2009, a rate equivalent to 7.8% of total outlays, and Medicaid improperly spent $18 billion, a rate of 9.6%. Medicare Advantage improperly spent $12 billion in 2009, a rate of 15.4% of total outlays on the private plans.

Welcome news from HHS Sec’y Kathleen Sebelius, but necessary. The White House realizes that to make its case for financing a portion of health reform with appropriate cuts in Medicare spending, it has to have data to back up the argument that responsible reaction to Medicare & Medicaid fraud and abuse does not equal rationing of services. If anything, more funding is available for what CMS is supposed to provide — a reliable form of healthcare coverage for the elderly in the spirit of its formation more than 40 years ago. | LINK

Related Posts Within Doctor Pundit:

1. Report: Americans Want Their Medicare, Not the Waste Associated with It For all of the emotional uproar generated by and among...
2. Obama and Budget Director Certain on Most Facets of ’12 Budget (Just Don’t Ask about Medicare & Medicaid) President Obama has referred to Medicare and Medicaid as the...
3. Texas Lawmakers Revisit Medicaid/Medicare Secession Scenario with Bill’s Intro Consider this: With a rate approaching 30 percent, the state...
4. OMB: Growth in Medicare, Medicaid Spending to Decrease over Next Decade If one assumes that news of cuts in reimbursements of...
5. For Obama (and the GOP?), Medicare/Medicaid Austerity Cuts Embedded within Reform Just whose side is Barack Obama on, anyway? With the...