Testimony Before the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee

Chris Pope testified in a hearing titled Protecting Patients and Taxpayers: Combating Healthcare Fraud and Leakage to Strengthen Program Integrity.

Chairman Schweikert, Ranking Member Hassan, and members of the committee,  

Thank you for inviting me to present my thoughts on reducing fraud, waste, and abuse in health insurance programs before this Joint Economic Committee hearing today.

Americans rely on health insurance to give them affordable access to essential medical care.  But the cost of coverage keeps increasing in large part due to the ease with which programs can be billed for unintended purposes.

My testimony begins by describing how payment by third parties, such as insurers and the government, makes healthcare susceptible to fraud, waste, and abuse.  It discusses how the administration of claims by private insurers can help mitigate these problems; but notes that this also creates new challenges of overpayment and improper enrollment.  Such problems are exacerbated by the incentive states have to claim Medicaid matching funds – and the absence of any upper limit on their ability to do so.

Click here to read the full testimony.

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Chris Pope is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.