News-At-A-Glance: Senior Medicare Patrol Report

On June 13, the Office of Inspector General for Health and Human Services released a report detailing performance data for the Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) program for 2013. The projects are funded by grants from the Administration for Community Living. The SMPs recruit and train retired professionals and other senior citizens to recognize and report instances or patterns of health care fraud. The report covers certain SMP performance measures that include actual savings to beneficiaries and others attributable to the SMP projects and cost-avoidance issues. According to the report, there are a total of 54 SMP projects and 5,406 active volunteers, which constitute a 5 percent increase from 2012. These volunteers conducted 148,235 one-on-one counseling sessions, a 341 percent increase over 2012, and 14,924 group sessions, also an increase from the 14,748 conducted in 2012. There were $9.1 million in recoveries attributable to the program, an increase of 50 percent over 2012. However, savings to Medicare beneficiaries and others of $41,718 in 2013 represents a decrease over 2012. The report emphasizes that it is not always easy to track referrals to Medicare contractors or law enforcement from the efforts of the SMP program, which means the program may not be receiving full credit for the work.