WASHINGTON – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) today highlighted a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General showing nearly $70 million lost in Medicare overpayments to suppliers of durable medical equipment – most of which will go unrecovered. The report demonstrates the need for HHS to recover overpayments using surety bonds, which are issued by companies as guarantees that health care providers will pay the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) any money they owe.
Since 2009, CMS has required suppliers of durable medical equipment to obtain at least $50,000 in surety bond coverage per location in order to recover debts owed to Medicare and protect against fraudulent suppliers. But the report showed that only $263,000 out of $50 million backed by surety bonds had been recovered, and CMS had inaccurate and incomplete bond information for many suppliers. It also found many overpayments to suppliers exceeded $50,000, the maximum amount CMS can collect on a surety bond. Because of the $50,000 limit per bond, as much as $42 million of that total will go uncollected. One supplier alone was overpaid by $5 million, but had carried bonds that only covered a fraction of that amount. Another $20 million in overpayments were made to suppliers who took out no surety bonds at all and therefore will not likely be recovered.
Read More »
WASHINGTON – Today, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) released the following statement thanking Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Jane Holl Lute for her service. Earlier this week Deputy Secretary Lute announced her decision to step down from the Department of Homeland Security:
“Jane has been a vital asset in carrying out the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to protect and secure all Americans,” said Chairman Carper. “The skills, expertise and drive she brought to the Department – developed during her thirty years in military and government service – have left us all safer than we were before her arrival at the agency four years ago. Specifically, I want to thank her for her leadership as the chief operating officer of the Department, where she did a remarkable job managing the third-largest federal agency and its 240,000 employees, while making DHS more efficient with scarce taxpayer resources. During her tenure DHS earned a qualified audit opinion on all of its Fiscal Year 2012 financial statements, a first for DHS and in record time for such a large and new federal Department. She was also instrumental in driving the great progress DHS has made in addressing, and significantly narrowing, the operational and management issues that have been designated as "high risk" by the Government Accountability Office. Finally, Jane played an important role in preparing our country for the 21st Century threat of cyber attacks and in building DHS into a world class cyber organization. We’ll miss her leadership and partnership, but I wish her all the best as she moves into the next chapter of her life and career."
Read More »
WASHINGTON – Today, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) released the following statement in response to the introduction of bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform legislation:
“I want to commend my colleagues in the so-called ‘Gang of Eight’ for introducing their comprehensive immigration reform bill. I know that this process has been long and painstaking as my colleagues worked closely with stakeholders to craft this bipartisan agreement. This legislation is a critical part of our long-overdue effort to fix our nation’s flawed and outdated immigration system, and it takes important steps to modernize our immigration laws and make them more effective and humane. I believe that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee can continue to be a good partner as this bill moves through the legislative process, particularly as we work to enhance our security efforts at our borders and ports of entry in a cost-effective manner.
Read More »
WASHINGTON – Today, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) issued the following statement on the explosions at the Boston Marathon this afternoon:
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Boston, as well as their friends, families and the many visitors in town for the marathon, who have been deeply affected by this tragedy. I want to thank our first responders, who are selflessly working to care for those who are injured, and the law enforcement personnel at the federal, state and local level who are investigating this incident. I am carefully monitoring this situation and will continue to do so as we gather more information. In the end, we’ll get to the bottom of this incident and use any and all information from this horrible tragedy to bolster our security and response efforts and continue to do all that we can to keep events like this from happening again.”
Read More »
