The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should do a better job of adjusting for health risk grade inflation at Medicare Advantage plans, according to officials at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Carolyn Yocom, a GAO director, delivered that argument Wednesday at a hearing on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services budget.
The House Energy & Commerce oversight subcommittee organized the hearing to review efforts to reduce the $941 billion in total HHS outlays and the $77 billion in HHS discretionary spending that the Obama administration has projected for fiscal year 2013.
Fiscal year 2013 will start Oct. 1.
The GAO has come up with ideas for many ways that CMS, a major arm of HHS, could cut spending, such as fighting fraud and making sure that Medicaid pilot projects do not increase federal spending, GAO officials say in a written report presented at the hearing.
