Leveraging Integrity and Verification of Eligibility for Beneficiaries Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 8084, the LIVE Beneficiaries Act, sponsored by Representatives Craig and Bilirakis.

This bipartisan bill would require State Medicaid agencies to use the database managed by the Social Security Administration to identify people who have passed away yet remain enrolled in the Medicaid program.

In recent years, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General has identified payments made by States to Medicaid-managed care plans for people who had already passed away.

H.R. 8084 would help to prevent this wasteful spending by requiring States to check the Social Security Administration's Death Master File on a quarterly basis at a minimum and to disenroll anyone who is deceased before any additional payments can be made inadvertently on their behalf.

Importantly, though, H.R. 8084 includes protections to ensure that in the rare circumstance an individual is falsely identified as deceased, the State must reinstate the person's coverage retroactive to the date that the person was improperly disenrolled.

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, again, this is a bill that addresses wasteful spending, and I think it is important for us to make sure we support it on a bipartisan basis.

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