Barrasso Bill Cracks Down on Medicaid Fraud

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) recently introduced the Safeguarding Medicaid Act to protect Medicaid beneficiaries and save billions in taxpayer dollars.

Currently, there is no federal standardized required asset verification process for Medicaid applicants. Individual states determine when and if they want to perform an asset verification. As a result, the country's Medicaid population jumped from 54 million in 2021 to nearly 100 million. This caused an estimated $100 billion of money spent on Medicaid services going to financially ineligible individuals.

This legislation would eliminate this fraud by requiring the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop an asset verification program for all applicants and recipients in all states and territories.

"Too many people across the country are abusing the Medicaid system. Medicaid was established to help children, pregnant women, seniors, and the disabled. These beneficiaries need a fair chance at receiving the benefits they need for life-saving care and treatments," said Senator Barrasso. "This bill will eliminate fraud in Medicaid services while saving American taxpayers billions of dollars. We must make sure that high-quality care is accessible and reliable to those who qualify for Medicaid."

Co-sponsors of this legislation include U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), John Kennedy (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).

Background:

• Federal and state agencies already use financial Asset Verification Systems (AVS) that partner with U.S. financial intuitions to electronically confirm beneficiaries meet the eligibility requirements of government programs.
• Out of 5.86 million asset verification requests made in 2021, AVS detected 58 percent of applicants held undisclosed account balances. In 46 percent of the cases, applicants had account balances above the eligibility thresholds.

Full text of the legislation can be found here.

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