Medicare Advantage overpayment scrutiny

Scrutiny of Medicare Advantage payment practices continues to build from multiple directions. MedPAC's chair publicly defended the commission's findings on plan overpayments after pushback from the insurer lobby, while CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz used a garden metaphor to describe the program as ripe for abuse without stronger oversight. Separately, a federal watchdog report accused Humana and UnitedHealthcare plans of upcoding to inflate payments, and the HHS Office of Inspector General called for tighter controls on durable medical equipment suppliers operating within Medicare Advantage.