Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA)

Lawmakers blasted a Medicaid anti-fraud program that has cost taxpayers more than five times as much as it recovered. 

Since 2008, more than $102 million was spent on the Medicaid audit effort, but only $20 million in overpayments were recovered, federal investigators revealed during a Senate hearing.

“I think Congress has been complicit in this far too long,” said Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA). The Government Accountability Office determined that nearly two-thirds of the audits of state spending were “unproductive.” 

Peter Budetti, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ director of program integrity, said audits conducted by 10 contractor companies have been discontinued; five remaining contractors will be dropped or reassigned.

This latest development follows a previous House hearing in which officials acknowledged that recovery of overpayments by Medicaid auditors has lagged behind their Medicare counterparts. Nursing homes, which are largely funded by Medicaid, have faced increased scrutiny from the audits.