Medicaid paid more than $200 million to dead people, and Trump is rewriting privacy laws to fix it | Fortune

"Medicaid programs made more than $200 million in improper payments to health care providers between 2021 and 2022 for people who had already died, according to a new report from the independent watchdog for the Department of Health and Human Services. But the department's Office of Inspector General said it expects a new provision in Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill requiring states to audit their Medicaid beneficiary lists may help reduce these improper payments in the future."

"These kinds of improper payments are "not unique to one state, and the issue continues to be persistent," Aner Sanchez, assistant regional inspector general in the Office of Audit Services told The Associated Press. Sanchez has been researching this issue for a decade. The watchdog report released Tuesday said more than $207.5 million in managed care payments were made on behalf of deceased enrollees between July 2021 to July 2022."

"The office recommends that the federal government share more information with state governments to recover the incorrect payments - including a Social Security database known as the Full Death Master File, which contains more than 142 million records going back to 1899. Sharing the Full Death Master File data has been tightly restricted due to privacy laws which protect against identity theft and fraud. The massive tax and spending bill that was signed into law by President Donald Trump this summer"

More than $207.5 million in managed care payments were made on behalf of deceased Medicaid enrollees between July 2021 and July 2022. The Office of Inspector General identifies improper payments as persistent and occurring across multiple states. The office recommends sharing the Social Security Full Death Master File with state Medicaid agencies to recover incorrect payments. Use of the Full Death Master File has been tightly restricted by privacy laws protecting against identity theft and fraud. A recently enacted tax and spending law expands permissible uses of the file and requires quarterly audits of Medicaid provider and beneficiary lists beginning in 2027. Since 2016, 18 audits identified roughly $289 million in improper payments for deceased enrollees.

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