Former Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies (CMS) administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure mentioned she is anxious with the velocity at which Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) is scrapping federal packages to chop prices.
“I think that certainly looking at payments is absolutely OK, but you need to make sure that you’re doing it with knowledge about what these programs do and a real understanding that if you make a tweak here, you can really have a significant effect on people, because this is real money,” Brooks-LaSure mentioned Wednesday at a well being care occasion hosted by Politico.
Her remarks come as DOGE officers search to entry numerous federal companies and departments, together with CMS’s mother or father division, the Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS).
DOGE’s actions have Democrats sounding alarm bells, as they argue the strikes from the unelected Musk are threatening People’ livelihoods and making pointless and unconstitutional cuts.
Earlier this month, Musk mentioned he believes Medicare fee methods are the place “the big money fraud is happening.” It comes as Republicans within the Home are poised to slash Medicare funds, regardless of concern from extra average members.
Brooks-LaSure famous that its widespread for brand new administrations to be accountable for Medicare and Medicaid spending. It was one thing she, throughout her time main the company beneath the Biden administration, “certainly” took “very seriously.”
She highlighted her time beneath the Biden administration inspecting funds to Medicare Benefit plans, which have been reported to be overpaid billions yearly, Politico reported.
These packages, Brooks-LaSure mentioned, are difficult and “you really have to make sure you understand what you are doing if you make a change to payments” and never reducing individuals’s capability to obtain medical care.
Beneath DOGE’s federal restructuring, many probationary workers have been fired at CMS, which Brooks-LaSure referred to as “damaging.”
“Indiscriminately firing people based on their status being temporary, without regard to what they do, is incredibly damaging,” she mentioned.
