Taxpayers have been paying for Viagra prescriptions due to software error
While some lawmakers are trying to prevent nary a taxpayer cent from ever coming into contact with a clinic that also provides abortion, there’s a group out
Jul 31, 20202.8K Shares570.4K Views
While some lawmakers are trying to preventnary a taxpayer cent from ever coming into contact with a clinic that also provides abortion, there’s a group out there whose sexual practices have been partially funded by taxpayers. And that group is senior citizens.
Recently, the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General discoveredthat Medicare Part D paid for erectile dysfunction drugs for seniors in 2007 and 2008, costing the government $3.1 million, out of approximately $133 billion for those years, according to the OIG.
Funding these types of “unnecessary” erectile dysfunction medications, such as Cialis, Viagra, Levitra and others goes against Medicare policy, and the Office of Inspector General blamed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for the error, which in turn blamed software.
“According to CMS officials, the software edit in place in CMS’s Medicare Drug Data Processing System during our audit period enabled CMS to identify and reject PDE data that sponsors submitted for ED drugs prescribed for the treatment of sexual or erectile dysfunction. However, according to the officials, the edit did not prevent CMS from accepting PDE data for some ED drugs in CY 2007 and most of CY 2008 because the Part D program used an incomplete list of excluded drugs as the basis for the edit.”
In response to the reports recommendations, the CMS has said it will try to get money back from insurers and prevent the problem from occurring in the past — though it has refused to work with the Food and Drug Administration to develop a list of drugs that do not be paid for by Medicare.
Hajra Shannon
Reviewer
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