Government auditors are calling for the cancellation of President Obama’s $8 billion Medicare bonus plan, noting the program is unusually large, while congressional Republicans are raising questions of whether the program’s "quality bonuses" are politically driven.
The Associated Press reports:
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office says in a report to be released Monday that the $8.3 billion the administration has earmarked for quality bonuses to Medicare Advantage insurance plans would postpone the pain of cuts to the plans under the new health care law. Most of the money would go to plans rated merely average. ...
GAO, the investigative agency of Congress, did not address GOP allegations that the bonuses are politically motivated. But, its report found the program highly unusual. It "dwarfs" all other Medicare pilots undertaken in nearly 20 years, the GAO said.
Most of the bonus money is going to plans that receive three to three-and-half stars on Medicare's five-star rating scale, the report said.
