GAO Report: Further Actions Needed by CMS to Control Improper Medicaid Payments

​The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has made progress in implementing key strategies identified by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to combat improper Medicaid payments, but further implementation of GAO's recommendations could help CMS better protect the program, states a January 2017 GAO report. According to the report, although CMS has established a more rigorous approach for verifying financial and nonfinancial information necessary to determine Medicaid beneficiary eligibility, gaps still exist in efforts to ensure that only eligible individuals are enrolled. GAO also states that CMS must ensure that Medicaid expenditures for enrollees, especially those eligible owing to the expansions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, are matched appropriately.