Federal Agencies Admit To $3 Trillion In Improper Payments To Healthcare Providers Since 2004
Auditors quantified the improper and mistaken payments admitted to by the 17 largest federal agencies. It amounts to a staggering $2.9 trillion since 2004, when the totals are adjusted for inflation.
Last year, in 2022, improper and mistaken federal payments totaled $247 billion. That’s about $20.5 billion per month, or more than $675 million every, single day.
What exactly is an improper payment? Federal law defines the term as “payments made by the government to the wrong person, in the wrong amount, or for the wrong reason.”
In other words, a corner grocery store has better accounting controls than our $6.82 trillion U.S. federal government had in 2021.
The worst year on record was 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic, when $281 billion was paid out incorrectly. However, in 2022, because of Covid protocols, agencies just weren’t counting some of the mistakes. According to the Government Accountability Office, some programs were “risk-susceptible” as money for Covid aid was quickly shoveled out by Congress. So, the total improper payments certainly would have rivaled the previous worst year ever.
The mistakes since 2004 run at an average of more than $150 billion per year, or more than $400 million paid incorrectly every day.
In 2022, the incorrect payments totaled $1,673 for every individual tax return filed that year. (167,915,264, according to the IRS). They amounted to $846 for every man, woman, and child in the country.
So, the government wasted $3,384 for every family of four – an amount equal to two average mortgage payments. (331,893,745, U.S. pop in 2021, from U.S. Census Bureau website).
Improper payments in health care are especially troubling. In 2011, when President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, Congress vowed to help pay for it by rooting out waste, fraud, corruption and taxpayer abuse from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
That never happened.
In fact, the improper payments within these programs soared from $64 billion in 2012 to $136 billion today.
Last year, in 2022, improper and mistaken federal payments totaled $247 billion. That’s about $20.5 billion per month, or more than $675 million every, single day.
What exactly is an improper payment? Federal law defines the term as “payments made by the government to the wrong person, in the wrong amount, or for the wrong reason.”
In other words, a corner grocery store has better accounting controls than our $6.82 trillion U.S. federal government had in 2021.
The worst year on record was 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic, when $281 billion was paid out incorrectly. However, in 2022, because of Covid protocols, agencies just weren’t counting some of the mistakes. According to the Government Accountability Office, some programs were “risk-susceptible” as money for Covid aid was quickly shoveled out by Congress. So, the total improper payments certainly would have rivaled the previous worst year ever.
The mistakes since 2004 run at an average of more than $150 billion per year, or more than $400 million paid incorrectly every day.
In 2022, the incorrect payments totaled $1,673 for every individual tax return filed that year. (167,915,264, according to the IRS). They amounted to $846 for every man, woman, and child in the country.
So, the government wasted $3,384 for every family of four – an amount equal to two average mortgage payments. (331,893,745, U.S. pop in 2021, from U.S. Census Bureau website).
Improper payments in health care are especially troubling. In 2011, when President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, Congress vowed to help pay for it by rooting out waste, fraud, corruption and taxpayer abuse from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
That never happened.
In fact, the improper payments within these programs soared from $64 billion in 2012 to $136 billion today.
70-79, M
