Eliminating Agency Payment Errors

The hearing will focus on agencies’ FY07 improper payments estimates reported under the Improper Payments Information Act. It will also look into efforts to reduce and eliminate improper payments and to recover identified overpayments. An estimated $55 billion in improper payments were made in FY07, most of them overpayments. This is up from $41 billion in FY06. However, a number of major programs – such as TANF, SCHIP, and the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit – are not yet reporting improper payments estimates. The GAO report GAO-08-377R provides a good summary of the FY07 estimates and the challenges agencies are facing in this area. GAO, OMB, the Social Security Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services have been invited to testify at the hearing.