Washington, D.C.–Top Republicans on the
Senate and House tax panels are calling on the Government Accountability Office
to look into whether states and federal agencies are taking proper steps to
identify and prevent fraud and improper payments in paying out tax credits for
health coverage, called “premium tax credits” or PTCs.
The
Members call on GAO to determine how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services can “establish an effective means to estimate improper payments.”
The
letter, sent by U.S. Senator
Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, and U.S.
House Ways and Means Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-Texas), follows a worrisome
uptick in fraud in federal spending. Experts find that up to $400 billion may
have been lost to international fraud rings from the unemployment insurance
program. And Democrats’ new child tax credit that removes work requirements may
prove irresistible to fraudsters.
Background: The American Rescue
Plan Act (ARPA) increased the value of the Obamacare PTCs, allowing individuals
earning over 400 percent of the federal poverty level to accept the credits for
the first time. As part of their reckless tax-and-spending spree, Democrats are
seeking to make this expansion permanent.
Concerns
have been raised over the susceptibility of the PTC program to fraud and
improper payments, and GAO has issued PTC program integrity reviews and
recommendations in the past. Crapo and Brady are pressing for additional
program oversight to help determine what further controls are required to help
identify and prevent fraud and improper payments.
Read
the letter here.