Two House Republicans are asking the Obama administration to explain how it is ensuring that Obamacare subsidies and Medicaid benefits are doled out correctly.
Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for answers to a long list of questions about how the agency is responding to oversight concerns raised by a government watchdog earlier this year.
The Government Accountability Office found weaknesses in how CMS is detecting and responding to people who accidently receive duplicate coverage. And when it tried to enroll individuals with fictitious identities, the GAO discovered that the agency approved subsidized coverage for a number of them.
The lawmakers also listed a number other concerns with the Obamacare marketplaces and Medicaid expansion set up under President Obama’s healthcare law, including worries that CMS hasn’t fixed oversight problems discovered during the first year of enrollment.
“We are very concerned that the lack of meaningful eligibility controls in Medicaid and the exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act puts American tax dollars at risk,” Upton and Pitts wrote in a letter sent Dec. 1 but released Wednesday.
The letter was addressed to CMS acting administrator Andy Slavitt, who testified before Congress earlier this month about how the state-run Obamacare insurance marketplaces are working and who faced probing questions about federal money awarded to exchanges that later failed.
Congress also delved into the question of oversight on Obamacare subsidies and Medicaid benefits with a hearing in October, where GAO officials testified about their investigations into the programs.
