Over $200 Million in Improper Medicaid Payments to Deceased Patients Revealed!

Tue Dec 23 2025 16:34:02 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

A new report unveils startling Medicaid mishaps, highlighting over $200 million in improper payments. The U.S. is set to change how it manages Medicaid benefits to prevent future issues. Discover what's changing!

A recent report has found that Medicaid programs made more than $200 million in improper payments to healthcare providers for patients who had already passed away between 2021 and 2022. This widespread issue, impacting multiple states, has prompted new measures to audit Medicaid beneficiary lists in hopes of cutting these costly errors. A method known as the Full Death Master File could play a crucial role in recovering these incorrect payments, paving the way for future accuracy in Medicaid disbursements.

Medicaid programs have inaccurately paid more than $200 million to providers for services rendered to individuals who were already deceased, according to a recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.

Between July 2021 and July 2022, over $207.5 million was disbursed improperly. Officials noted that this problem isn’t isolated to a single state, indicating a persistent issue affecting numerous regions.

Fortunately, a new provision in the legislation known as One Big Beautiful Bill is aiming to tackle this issue. It mandates states to conduct audits of their Medicaid beneficiary lists. Beginning in 2027, Medicaid agencies will be required to quarterly match their records against the Full Death Master File, a comprehensive database that tracks deceased individuals.

The goal is to prevent these erroneous payments going forward and enhance the overall accuracy of Medicaid functions. Prior attempts to utilize this database have had success, including the recovery of over $31 million from earlier improper payments this year.

As officials consider strict methods to address these inaccuracies, the protection of personal data remains a sensitive topic due to privacy laws aimed at preventing identity theft and fraud.