Causes of Government Fraud Are Right There, On Paper
OC Register/Susan Shelley - Columnist
http://www.ocregister.com/2017/07/29/causes-of-government-fraud-are-right-there-on-paper/
Last year, Medicare sent out $60 billion in the wrong amount, to the wrong person, or for the wrong reason, and that’s just one chunk of an iceberg of federal funds that are going where they’re not supposed to go.
The Government Accountability Office announced in July that Medicare is one of the programs at “high risk” for what officials call “improper payments,” because of the program’s size, complexity and “susceptibility to mismanagement.”
The U.S. government estimates that it sent out $144 billion of “improper payments” across all agencies in 2016, up from $137 billion in 2015.
Some of the losses can’t even be calculated. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said it will be 2022 before it can estimate the improper payments related to the advance premium tax credit under the Affordable Care Act, which CMS assessed last year was “susceptible to significant improper payments.” The GAO found that when individuals applied for the credit, no one verified their identity, address or eligibility.
The Social Security Administration paid $171 million to people who claimed benefits under two Social Security numbers, according to an audit by the agency’s inspector general, and in 13,000 cases, the SSA continued paying benefits to people it knew were dead.
The money really flies out the door at the Internal Revenue Service, which sends out tax refund checks to people who qualify for “refundable” tax credits whether they paid any taxes or not. An audit found “improper payments” of $16.8 billion for the Earned Income Tax Credit in 2016, an error rate of 24 percent. The IRS also found that the EITC was claimed by 49,000 people who had Social Security numbers but were not authorized to work in the U.S.
Another $7.2 billion in wrongful payments went out to people claiming the Additional Child Tax Credit, and $1.1 billion was lost to improper payments for a tax credit for higher education.
The GAO estimates that between 2003 and 2016, the government sent out $1.2 trillion in improper payments, which almost anyone would think is a lot of money. You’d certainly notice if it was missing.
The House of Representatives has noticed, and so has President Trump. Each has a proposal for reducing the amount of improper payments across the government. “The goal ought to be to move it to zero,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia. “We know we’ll never reach zero.”
Connolly, the ranking member of the House subcommittee with oversight of government operations, wants the federal government to invest in upgrading its technology. He says Washington also needs to hire skilled people with both technology and legal backgrounds to cut down on “improper payments,” which the GAO acknowledges include fraud as well as error.
The root of the problem, of course, is that when the government sends out free money for filling out a form correctly, there will always be people who really know how to fill out a form.
It would certainly help if government agencies verified the information before sending out the checks, but Congress has so far refused to give the IRS the authority to verify individuals’ information on tax returns by checking it against the corresponding information in other government databases. So the tax agency just processes the forms and sends out the refunds.
The IRS estimated that in 2014, it paid $5.8 billion to identity thieves.
That’s a nice payday just for doing a little paperwork.
Susan Shelley is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. Reach her at Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on Twitter: @Susan_Shelley.
Causes of government fraud are right there on paper ? Orange County Register
OC Register/Susan Shelley - Columnist
http://www.ocregister.com/2017/07/29/causes-of-government-fraud-are-right-there-on-paper/
Last year, Medicare sent out $60 billion in the wrong amount, to the wrong person, or for the wrong reason, and that’s just one chunk of an iceberg of federal funds that are going where they’re not supposed to go.
The Government Accountability Office announced in July that Medicare is one of the programs at “high risk” for what officials call “improper payments,” because of the program’s size, complexity and “susceptibility to mismanagement.”
The U.S. government estimates that it sent out $144 billion of “improper payments” across all agencies in 2016, up from $137 billion in 2015.
Some of the losses can’t even be calculated. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said it will be 2022 before it can estimate the improper payments related to the advance premium tax credit under the Affordable Care Act, which CMS assessed last year was “susceptible to significant improper payments.” The GAO found that when individuals applied for the credit, no one verified their identity, address or eligibility.
The Social Security Administration paid $171 million to people who claimed benefits under two Social Security numbers, according to an audit by the agency’s inspector general, and in 13,000 cases, the SSA continued paying benefits to people it knew were dead.
The money really flies out the door at the Internal Revenue Service, which sends out tax refund checks to people who qualify for “refundable” tax credits whether they paid any taxes or not. An audit found “improper payments” of $16.8 billion for the Earned Income Tax Credit in 2016, an error rate of 24 percent. The IRS also found that the EITC was claimed by 49,000 people who had Social Security numbers but were not authorized to work in the U.S.
Another $7.2 billion in wrongful payments went out to people claiming the Additional Child Tax Credit, and $1.1 billion was lost to improper payments for a tax credit for higher education.
The GAO estimates that between 2003 and 2016, the government sent out $1.2 trillion in improper payments, which almost anyone would think is a lot of money. You’d certainly notice if it was missing.
The House of Representatives has noticed, and so has President Trump. Each has a proposal for reducing the amount of improper payments across the government. “The goal ought to be to move it to zero,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia. “We know we’ll never reach zero.”
Connolly, the ranking member of the House subcommittee with oversight of government operations, wants the federal government to invest in upgrading its technology. He says Washington also needs to hire skilled people with both technology and legal backgrounds to cut down on “improper payments,” which the GAO acknowledges include fraud as well as error.
The root of the problem, of course, is that when the government sends out free money for filling out a form correctly, there will always be people who really know how to fill out a form.
It would certainly help if government agencies verified the information before sending out the checks, but Congress has so far refused to give the IRS the authority to verify individuals’ information on tax returns by checking it against the corresponding information in other government databases. So the tax agency just processes the forms and sends out the refunds.
The IRS estimated that in 2014, it paid $5.8 billion to identity thieves.
That’s a nice payday just for doing a little paperwork.
Susan Shelley is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. Reach her at Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on Twitter: @Susan_Shelley.
Causes of government fraud are right there on paper ? Orange County Register
