In what's by now a familiar story, a recent report from the OIG discovered that CMS has failed to collect $225 million in state Medicaid overpayments. Between fiscal years 2000 and 2009, the OIG released 147 audit reports that recommended that CMS recover $1.2 billion in state Medicaid overpayments. While CMS had recovered $987 million as of December 2012, the remaining $225 was still outstanding.

The uncollected overpayments were associated with 10 OIG audit reports, and the OIG said the elapsed time from the release of the OIG clearance document through December 2012 ranged from 39 months to 86 months. CMS is required to resolve OIG report recommendations within six months of the report release date.

The report is one of several OIG reports within the last six months detailing CMS failures to prevent or recover Medicare and Medicaid overpayments. For example, a January report discovered that CMS made $126 million in improper payments for services provided to illegal immigrants and prisoners between 2009 and 2011, and a November report discovered that skilled nursing facilities received $1.5 billion in inappropriate Medicare payments in 2009.