Medicaid’s financial vulnerability became even more visible in 2024 as Medicaid improper payments climbed to $31.1 billion. These losses are not incidental—they represent systemic shortcomings that drain state budgets and weaken the program’s ability to meet growing demand. A major driver behind this escalating problem...
The Scope of the Problem In its August 2025 report, GAO-25-108067, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlighted 32 priority recommendations for the Department of the Treasury. At the forefront of these recommendations is addressing the widespread issue of fraud and improper payments—a problem that continues to...
A recent report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has revealed that millions of individuals were enrolled in overlapping public health programs in 2024, a situation that continues to strain Medicaid budgets and expose vulnerabilities in eligibility tracking systems. These duplicate Medicaid...
Improper payments and fraud remain chronic and costly difficulties for Medicaid and other government-funded programs. The GAO defines improper payments as payments that should not have been made or that were made in an incorrect amount (including overpayments and underpayments) under statutory, contractual, administrative, or...
The nation's most vulnerable populations rely upon Medicaid and Medicare for essential healthcare services. Regrettably, these programs lose billions of dollars each year as a result of improper payments. Recently, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations explored this pressing issue in an essential hearing titled...
A new audit by the GAO indicates that the government suffered a significant loss of $236 billion in 2023 as a result of improper payments. Medicaid and Medicare alone accounted for 43% of these payments, with Medicaid's improper payments reaching $50.3 billion. These findings highlight...
Medicaid improper payments have caused the safety net program to be on the Government Accountability Office's High-Risk List since 2003. The GAO's list identifies government programs that involve considerable resources and offer vital services to the public that are prone to fraud, waste, abuse, and...
Improper claims payments are costing Medicaid billions. A frequent misunderstanding is that these payments originate from fraud and abuse when the majority stem from prosaic, mundane issues such as eligibility errors and outdated data systems. Take advantage of this opportunity to receive a free quantitative...
According to federal agency data from PaymentAccuracy.gov and the Office of Management and Budget, the federal government spent an estimated $247 billion in improper payments in 2022. The data also uncovered that the Department of Health and Human Services' Medicaid program represented the majority of...
The Government Accountability Office just recently released its updated High-Risk List. The update is part of the biennial High-Risk Series launched in 1990 that identifies government operations vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. The current report marks the twentieth consecutive year that Medicaid has...