Rep. McDermott Statement on Draft Medicare Program Integrity Bill

Statement

The Affordable Care Act has helped transform how we combat fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare. The law has made it easier for federal regulators to focus on preventing violations on the front end, and it has provided additional enforcement authority to punish violators after the fact. The Administration has shown that it is serious about using these tools, and we have achieved measurable savings as a result. The Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team has recovered more than $4 billion every single year since 2011, including a record-breaking $4.3 billion in 2013. In the last five years, the team has recovered over $19 billion.

Although we have made progress, there is still more work to do.

I intend to carefully review the majority's discussion draft to determine whether it can provide a workable framework for continuing the efforts that we began as part of the Affordable Care Act. Although I have concerns regarding some provisions in this proposal, I look forward to working together to address these concerns and refining the draft to ensure that it contains strong bene

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