ICYMI: Colorado Congressman Gabe Evans is leading a bipartisan effort to close a loophole in Medicaid that he says is leading to identity theft
ICYMI, this week Congressman Gabe Evans co-introduced the bipartisan Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act, a bill that would require states to regularly check social security files for deceased doctors whose Medicaid or Medicare ID numbers are still being used to bill for services. This bill comes as Colorado is trying to answer for why the state has paid $7 million to dead Medicaid members.
Watch more from CBS Colorado here or see highlights below.
Rep. Evans Introduces Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act
March 26, 2025
Colorado Congressman Gabe Evans is leading a bipartisan effort to close a loophole in Medicaid that he says is leading to identity theft.
He has introduced a bill that would require states to regularly check Social Security files for deceased doctors.
[…]
Evans says the Accountability Office identified $54 billion in improper payments for Medicare and $31 billion for Medicaid payments in 2024.
The Colorado Auditor's office recently found 10 major weaknesses in the department that administers Medicaid in the state of Colorado, including inaccurate billing codes.
Evans says he wants to protect federal health programs for those who need them most by cutting back on waste fraud and abuse.
“Preventing that identity theft from being weaponized in the Medicaid space by removing providers who have passed on from the system and taking that provider number out of the system as a viable method to get payment, is step one in making sure we reduce these instances of what literally amounts to identity theft of a dead provider,” Evans said.
[…]