HCFA Paid $4.1 Million to Cover Deceased Medicare+Choice Beneficiaries, OIG Reports

Over the last decade, HCFA paid $4.1 million to managed care plans to cover future medical costs for Medicare beneficiaries who had already died, the AP/Seattle Times reports. According to a report by the HHS Office of Inspector General, HCFA paid premiums for 200 Medicare beneficiaries who had died between 1991 and 1999. In fiscal year 2000, Medicare spending was just short of $200 billion (HHS budget, April 2001). The errors occurred because a smaller HHS database of Medicare+Choice beneficiaries, including those who had died, did not "always square" with the main Medicare database, the report found. However, officials said that the agency "has improved" its record keeping. Michael McMullan, acting deputy director of HCFA, said, "The most recent monthly run of our utility shows no payments made for deceased beneficiaries." The OIG report said $3.2 million of the misdirected funds are still uncollected, but HCFA officials said they have retrieved $4 million. The inspector general's report studied Arizona, California, Colorado and Florida, the four states with the highest Medicare+Choice market saturation (AP/Seattle Times, 5/12).