A U.S. government-sponsored audit program that forces healthcare providers to return improper Medicaid payments doubled its recoveries in fiscal 2012 over the prior year, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The Recovery Audit Program, which uses private contractors to scour Medicare records and identify suspect payments, recouped close to $2.3 billion in fiscal 2012, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told Reuters. That figure is up from $797 million in 2011, the first year the program was fully operational, according to agency reports.
