The District of Columbia had the highest amount of Medicare waste per beneficiary in fiscal year 2015, according to a recently released analysis by the Council for Medicare Integrity, a nonprofit government watchdog.
For the analysis, CMI looked at the amount of Medicare overpayments collected from healthcare providers through the Recovery Audit Contractor program in each state and the District of Columbia in FY 2015. CMI then divided the overpayment amounts by the number of Medicare beneficiaries in each state to determine the amount of taxpayer dollars wasted per beneficiary.
Here are the 20 states with the highest Medicare waste per beneficiary, according to the CMI report.
1. District of Columbia — $30.90 waste per beneficiary
2. Delaware — $22.55
3. Texas — $20.62
4. New Jersey — $18.09
5. Oklahoma — $17.80
6. Connecticut — $17.17
7. Louisiana — $15.41
8. Pennsylvania — $14.73
9. California — $14.72
10. Arkansas — $14.21
11. New Mexico — 14.13
12. Arizona — $13.60
13. Missouri — $12.71
14. Colorado — $12.63
15. Wyoming — $11.78
16. Hawaii — $11.31
17. Mississippi — $11.05
18. West Virginia — $10.63
19. Indiana — $10.38
20. Nevada — $9.69
More information on CMI's Medicare waste analysis can be accessed here.
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