Not all of the news out of the nation’s capital is bad. Nearly $16 billion was saved as a result of recommendations by the Department of Health and Human Services’ internal watchdog, according to a new report.
Additionally, investigations and audits by the HHS inspector general returned almost $5 billion to the government in 2014. That means taxpayers saw more than a $16 return for every dollar invested into the office’s budget, which was just short of $300 million for fiscal 2014, according to the IG report.
“It’s never been below $6 returned for every dollar spent for the past 13 years,” said IG spokesman Don White.
To put the numbers in context, HHS improperly paid a total of nearly $43 billion, according to its fiscal 2014 financial report, meaning the IG’s recoveries equaled about 11 percent of what the department lost.
The subsequent investigations produced criminal charges against more than 200 individuals or organizations, the IG report said.
Several of the money-saving recommendations were intended to tighten internal controls involved in implementation of Obamacare, including the health exchanges, as they are “a substantial management challenge to” the department, IG Daniel R. Levinson said in the report.
Overseeing the marketplaces will remain a top challenge for the IG next year, White said.
Another priority for the watchdog is to decrease the amount of fraud surrounding Medicare’s improper payments for drugs, specifically, highly addictive painkillers, White said. Patients or pharmacies have fraudulently charged Medicare for illegal use or sale of the drugs.
Also, as the HHS is the largest grant-making organization in the U.S., the IG will continue to oversee the proper use of distributed money. The watchdog cannot estimate the savings or return from their activities in fiscal 2015.
“There’s just too many variables,” White said.
