CMS Unknowingly Paid $33 Million for Inmate Care, Pledges to Halt Practice

Published on:
25 January 2013 at 05:13 a.m. ET

http://www.insidearm.com/news/00037019-cms-unknowingly-paid-33-million-for-inmat/

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will now be on the lookout for providers that submit claims on behalf of prison inmates, and is currently examining if it should recover $33.6 million in improper payments made between 2009 and 2011, following an investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG).

Prisons, not the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, pay for healthcare of incarcerated people who are otherwise eligible for Medicare, according to a statement by the OIG.

Because CMS did not always receive incarceration information promptly, Medicare payments totaling $33.6 million were made to health care providers for services to approximately 11,600 incarcerated beneficiaries during calendar years 2009 through 2011, the OIG office reports.