Medicare

A drop in the bucket…

Every year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) conducts a recovery audit. In a recent report, Medicare collected over $797 million in Medicare overpayments in 2011. Where do these overpayments come from?

  • Inpatient: $677m
  • Durable Medical Equipment & Other: $35m
  • Physician: $33m
  • Outpatient: $17m
  • Skilled Nursing Facilities: $0.2m

Recovery Audit Contractors returned $488 million in improper payments to the Medicare Trust Fund in 2011. Although this may seem like a large amount of money, Medicare spending in 2010 was $524 billion. Thus, the recovered funds amount to less than two tenths of a percentage of total Medicare spending.


Figures from the FY2010 audit are displayed below. These figures do not, however, include payments returned to the trust fund.

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