Summary: The Department of Health and Human Services has been directed to establish a data bank, beginning in February 1995, that would contain information on all workers, spouses, and dependents who are covered by employer-provided health insurance. The goal is to save millions by strengthening processes to (1) identify the approximately 7 million Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries who have other health insurance coverage that should pay medical bills before Medicare and Medicaid kicks in and (2) ensure that this insurance is appropriately applied to reduce Medicare and Medicaid costs. In GAO's view, however, the data bank will end up costing millions and likely achieve little in the way of savings. GAO believes that changes and improvements to existing activities would be a much easier, less costly, and thus preferable alternative to the data bank. This is largely because the data bank will result in an enormous amount of added paperwork for both the Health Care Financing Administration and the nation's employers. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: Medicare/Medicaid: Data Bank Unlikely to Increase Collections From Other Insurers, by Leslie G. Aronovitz, Associate Director for Health Financing Issues, before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. GAO/T-HEHS-94-162, May 6, 1994 (four pages).
