Musk's team accesses Medicare, Medicaid records
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Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has gained access to the inner workings of Health and Human Services, including data systems of the agency that manages a nearly $2 trillion budget, handles Medicare and Medicaid benefits and runs the National Institutes of Health, the world's biggest biomedical research institution.
Why it matters: As they march through the federal bureaucracy, Musk and his team now have a seemingly unfiltered view of the sensitive inner workings of much of U.S. health care.
- DOGE is looking for examples of waste, fraud and abuse as it pursues "opportunities for more effective and efficient use of resources" at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency spokesperson said.
- But it's not clear how wide a net it's casting or how it's defining those words.
State of play: Two senior agency staff, one focused on policy and one focused on operations, are leading collaborative efforts with DOGE and "ensuring appropriate access to CMS systems and technology," a CMS spokesperson said Wednesday.
- DOGE team members have also visited the Atlanta offices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and asked for sensitive information from the agencies, the Washington Post reported.
- DOGE staff have been given read-only access to a database including information on contracts the agency maintains, according the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on DOGE entering CMS.
- WSJ reported that DOGE is also looking at the technology used by CMS and its organizational structure.
- CMS did not respond to questions on specific systems DOGE staff have access to, or how long the review is expected to last.
What they're saying: "Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening," Musk wrote on X Wednesday, referring to DOGE going into Medicare systems.
The definition of abuse or waste "is really in the eye of the beholder," Chris Meekins, managing director at Raymond James, wrote in a client note.
- For example, Medicare advisers to Congress argue the government is overpaying privately administrated Medicare Advantage plans that now cover more than half of the country's seniors. But insurers and other policymakers and advisers disagree that the government is wasting money in that space.
- DOGE has said it wants to save $2 trillion in government spending, which is virtually impossible to do without making cuts to health spending. But President Trump told reporters last week that his administration won't touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid unless it finds abuse or waste.
- "The people won't be affected," Trump said.
Reality check: The federal government has long-established channels for rooting out overspending and wrongdoing in health programs. They recoup billions of taxpayer dollars each year.
- HHS inspectors recovered $7.13 billion for the federal government in misspent taxpayer funds during fiscal year 2024. The Justice Department brought in another $1.7 billion in settlements and judgements from health care-related litigation on false claims.
- Trump fired HHS inspector general Christi Grimm last week.
Yes, but: The Government Accountability Office said in an April report that the federal government can do more to stop improper payments in Medicare and Medicaid.
- The two programs accounted for 43% of improper payments made throughout federal agencies in 2023, according to GAO.
- Conservative health wonks are optimistic that DOGE can bring positive change to government-run health programs.
- "It is a no-brainer for DOGE to focus on problems in this area and it's long overdue," Brian Blase, president of health policy think tank Paragon Health Institute, told Axios.
