MORE ON: Obama Plan To Crack Down On Medicare And Medicaid Fraud With ‘Payment Recapture Audits’

The words of the day are: “Payment Recapture Audits.” In remarks today on health care reform in St. Charles, MO, President Obama is discussing the use of such audits as a way to recoup taxpayer dollars lost to fraud and waste. 

Payment recapture audits offer specialized private auditors financial incentives to root out improper payments, and, according to the administration, have been demonstrated through pilot programs to be highly effective. According to the White House, expanded use of payment recapture audits could return at least $2 billion in taxpayer money over the next three years – double the current amount of projected recovered costs; a pilot program run by Medicare in three large states – California, New York, and Texas – from 2005 to 2008 recaptured $900 million for taxpayers.
 
The President will sign a presidential memorandum today that directs all federal departments and agencies to expand and intensify their use of payment recapture audits under their current authority. The president also will announce his support for the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, bipartisan legislation to expand the ability of government agencies to fund the audits with recaptured payments.
 
In his prepared remarks, President Obama says: “The fact is, Washington is a place where tax dollars are often treated like Monopoly money, bartered and traded, divvied up among lobbyists and special interests.  And it has been a place where waste – even billions of dollars in waste – is accepted as the price of doing business. Well, I don’t accept business as usual.  And the American people don’t accept it either, especially when one of the most pressing challenges we face is reining in long-term deficits with threaten to leave our children a mountain of debt.”