CMS Recovered Medicare Payments to Providers Under the COVID-19 Accelerated and Advance Payments Program in Compliance With Federal Requirements

Why OIG Did This Audit

• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) disbursed more than $103 billion in COVID-19 Accelerated and Advance Payments (CAAP) Program payments to more than 46,000 providers.
• COVID-19 created extraordinary challenges for the delivery of health care and human services to the American people. As the oversight agency for Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of Inspector General (OIG) oversees HHS’s COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. This audit is part of OIG’s COVID-19 response strategic plan.
• This audit determined whether CAAP Program payments were recovered in compliance with the repayment terms of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act and other Federal requirements.

What OIG Found

CMS recovered the CAAP Program payments made to providers in compliance with the repayment terms of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act and other Federal requirements. As of the end of our fieldwork, of the 100 sampled providers totaling $4.4 billion in CAAP Program payments, the Medicare Administrative Contractors completed recovery from 97 sampled providers and continued the recovery from the remaining 3 providers.

What OIG Recommends

Based on our sample, we found that CMS recovered the CAAP Program payments made to providers in compliance with the repayment terms of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act and other Federal requirements. Therefore, we do not have any recommendations.

CMS elected not to provide comments on our draft report.