Senate Committee to Hold Hearing on Medicare Providers with Tax Delinquencies

On March 20, 2007, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' Subcommittee on Investigations (Subcommittee) will hold a hearing entitled, Medicare Doctors Who Cheat on Their Taxes and What Should Be Done About It.

In a recent article, the Washington Post reports that a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report indicates that "[t]he federal government has failed to collect more than $1 billion in back taxes owed by Medicare doctors and suppliers, nearly half of it payroll taxes deducted by health-care providers who spent the money on luxury cars and other personal expenses rather than sending it to the IRS."  According to the Washington Post article, the taxes have not been collected because the Department of Health and Human Services has failed to connect its computers to those of the Internal Revenue Service and other Treasury Department divisions. 

At the hearing, the Subcommittee is expected to hear testimony on the recent GAO report and its findings.  During the hearing, the Acting Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Leslie V. Norwalk, is also expected to testify.