August 25,2008

Grassley: CMS Needs to Press Part D Sponsors for Anti-fraud Measures

M E M O R A N D U M

To: Reporters and Editors
Re: Fraud, abuse oversight of Part D plans
Da: Monday, Aug. 25, 2008

Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, with jurisdiction over Medicare, made the following comment on a new report from the Government Accountability Office entitled, “Medicare Part D: Some Plan Sponsors Have Not Completely Implemented Fraud and Abuse Programs, and CMS Oversight Has Been Limited,” GAO-08-760. The report is available at www.gao.gov.

“This is unacceptable. Some plan sponsors are dragging their feet on required anti-fraud preventions, and CMS is letting them get away with it. CMS needs to hold the plan sponsors accountable. These companies are acting as federal contractors. They need to meet all of the conditions for doing business with the government. The taxpayers can’t be left to foot the bill for
fraud that CMS and companies didn’t prevent.”