Leveraging Integrity and Verification of Eligibility for Beneficiaries Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chair for giving me the opportunity to speak. She has done such an outstanding job as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. We are so very fortunate. She thinks of her constituents and the American people as a whole first, and we really appreciate her service.
I rise in strong support of my bill, H.R. 8084, the Leveraging Integrity and Verification of Eligibility, or the LIVE Beneficiaries Act.
I am grateful to have worked in a bipartisan fashion alongside Representative Craig, and I thank her for her support of this commonsense bill focused on Medicaid program integrity and preventing fraud, waste, and abuse to save taxpayer dollars.
Our legislation requires CMS to ensure that States are certifying, at least on a quarterly basis, that enrollees are not listed on the Social Security Administration's Death Master File database. We also include a provision to give States the ability to check other death records to make sure Medicaid beneficiaries are not deceased.
I mean, what we want is to save money for our senior citizens and those who need Medicaid, as well. This is a good bill. Unfortunately, it is a must-pass bill. It shouldn't have to happen, but we are going to save dollars, and we are going to take care of this with this particular bill.
We also require immediate disenrollment of beneficiaries should they verify the death of Medicaid enrollees. This repeals the current CMS guidance that forced States to collect additional information about their beneficiaries to ensure their records are correct.
CMS has started to recognize this problem and take some administrative steps with States but not enough. This bill will help ensure we are abiding by good governance standards in statute. We know that too often fraudulent, wasteful payments occur in the Medicaid and Medicare programs, and we should continue to find ways to cut down and save taxpayer dollars wherever possible.
Again, the money is intended to go to our seniors and those who are on Medicaid. That is what we are doing with this bill. I commend Representative Garcia for his bill, as well. I also thank the chairman and the ranking member. I ask my colleagues to support H.R. 8084.
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