Pursuit's Take
GAO was asked to examine the enrollment process and verification controls of the federal Marketplace. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) requires applicant information be verified to determine eligibility for enrollment or income-based subsidies. During undercover testing, the federal Marketplace approved subsidized coverage under the act for 11 of 12 fictitious GAO phone or online applicants for 2014. The GAO applicants obtained a total of about $30,000 in annual advance premium tax credits, plus eligibility for lower costs at time of service. The fictitious enrollees maintained subsidized coverage throughout 2014, even though GAO sent fictitious documents, or no documents, to resolve application inconsistencies.
In addition, according to GAO analysis of CMS data, about 431,000 applications from the 2014 enrollment period, with about $1.7 billion in associated subsidies for 2014, still had unresolved inconsistencies as of April 2015—several months after close of the coverage year. Report.
Final Results: 9/9/16 Report.
Media Coverage
NBC News: Feds ‘Passive’ About Policing Obamacare Fraud, Report Finds
Americans For Tax Reform: Watchdog Finds Billions in Possible Fraudulent Obamacare Payments
The Fiscal Times: Obamacare Fraud Is Rampant and Unchecked, GAO Warns
The Wall Street Journal: Federal Health Exchange Approved Fake Claims
Read the full report