Bilirakis Reintroduces Bipartisan Bill Preventing Medicaid Payments to the Deceased

Representative Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) has reintroduced bipartisan legislation with Representative Angie Craig (D-MN) to prevent Medicaid capitation payments from going to deceased enrollees.

Named the "Leveraging Integrity and Verification of Eligibility for (LIVE) Beneficiaries" Act, Rep. Bilirakis's bill requires states to refer to Social Security's Death Master File database quarterly to ensure that Medicaid capitation payments are correctly received by living enrollees.

If deceased enrollees are still found to receive payments, state Medicaid programs must remove those names from their rolls.

A November 2023 audit report from 14 states found that over $249 million in Medicaid capitation payments were made to Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) for enrollees no longer living.

In his press release, Rep. Bilirakis said, "As we work to ensure the long-term solvency of critical safety net programs, like Medicaid and Medicare, we have an obligation to ensure we are serving as good stewards of taxpayer dollars. This means we must prevent fraud, waste, and abuse whenever possible. By implementing simple safeguards like the ones in this bill, we can strengthen these programs and help ensure they are meeting their intended purpose of providing access to quality care for our most vulnerable citizens."

Similarly, Rep. Craig added, "Minnesotans deserve to know that their tax dollars are being spent as they were intended, and it's our job as Members of Congress to root out wasteful spending. That's why I'm proud to lead this commonsense, bipartisan bill with Rep. Bilirakis to improve our Medicaid system and ensure taxpayers' dollars are well-spent."

In recent weeks, President Donald Trump and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk claimed that deceased individuals were still receiving Social Security benefits, with supposed enrollees being up to 150 years old (or even older).

However, CBS noted that the exact nature of these supposed payments to deceased (or somehow immortal) people is more nuanced: Social Security uses an ancient programming language (COBOL) that lacks date types. "This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birth dates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago," CBS explained.

Moreover, reports from the Social Security Inspector General found that deaths were not properly logged, but that did not mean benefits were still going out to these impossibly old enrollees.