In his remarks on health insurance reform in St. Charles, Missouri, President Obama announced today a new effort to to crack down on waste and fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, and other government programs through the expanded use of payment recapture audits.
In explaining this new effort, the president said that taxpayer dollars will be recouped through the use of payment recapture audits, which offer specialized private auditors financial incentives to root out improper payments and payment errors. It is anticipated that the audits could return at least $2 billion in taxpayer money over the next three years– double the current amount of projected recovered costs, the president said.
Obama also announced his support for the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, bipartisan legislation to expand the government’s ability to fund the audits with recaptured payments.
“The fact is, Washington is a place where tax dollars are often treated like Monopoly money, bartered and traded, divvied up among lobbyists and special interests. And it has been a place where waste – even billions of dollars in waste – is accepted as the price of doing business,” said President Obama. “Well, I don’t accept business as usual. And the American people don’t accept it either, especially when one of the most pressing challenges we face is reining in long-term deficits with threaten to leave our children a mountain of debt.”
In discussing health care reform, the president explained that the proposal rests on three main pillars, (i) ending the worst practices of insurance companies (ii) creating a market place which will provide affordable health care options and (iii) reducing costs for families, businesses and the government.
The proposal is anticipated to reduce the federal deficit by $1 trillion over the next decade and as well, reduce premiums.
“So here’s the bottom line, St. Charles. There’s no government takeover, unless you consider reining in insurance companies a government takeover — and I think that’s the right thing to do,” Obama said. “There’s no cutting of Medicare benefits. There’s just cutting out fraud and waste in Medicare to make it stronger.”
Obama said that the health care reform proposal is a common-sense approach aimed at protecting Americans from insurance company abuses and saving money. He opined that Congress owes the American people a final up and down vote on health care reform.
“The time for talk is over; it’s time to vote,” the president said.
