Senator Grassley issued letters this week to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) related to potential fraud in the Medicare Advantage program. Citing news articles, DOJ investigations and a recent Government Accountability Office report, Grassley states: “Some insurance companies that offer Medicare Advantage are allegedly engaging in billing abuse by altering patient records in order to claim patients are sicker than they actually are” because reimbursement is higher for sicker patients.

Grassley requested that CMS provide responses to the following questions:

1. What steps has CMS taken, and is currently taking, to ensure that insurance companies are not fraudulently altering risk scores? Please provide a detailed explanation.
2. Is CMS working in conjunction with DOJ to investigate risk score fraud? Please explain the relationship. If not, why not?
3. Since the inception of Medicare Advantage, how many risk score audits has CMS conducted each year? For each year and each audit, what was the value of the overcharge? How much was recovered via settlement or other measures?
4. How much money per year is allocated by CMS for auditing Medicare Advantage fraud, waste and abuse?

Grassley also requested that the DOJ provide responses to the following questions:

1. What steps has DOJ taken, and is currently taking, to ensure that insurance companies are not fraudulently altering risk scores? Please provide a detailed explanation.
2. Is DOJ working in conjunction with CMS to investigate risk score fraud? Please explain the relationship. If not, why not?
3. In the past 5 years, how many Medicare Advantage risk score fraud investigations has DOJ conducted? Of the investigations, how many resulted in criminal and/or civil sanction?

Grassley requested responses from CMS and DOJ by June 3, 2015.

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