Medicare's Policies and Procedures Identified Almost All Improper Claims Submitted for Deceased Individuals and Recouped Almost All Improper Payments Made for These Claims for January 2013 Through October 2015 

CMS had policies and procedures to ensure that payments were not made for Medicare services ostensibly rendered to deceased individuals. These policies and procedures generally ensured that CMS did not make improper payments when its data systems indicated at the time a claim was processed that the individual had died before the claimed date of service. These policies and procedures also ensured that CMS correctly identified and recouped improper payments for almost all of the cases in which the Enrollment Database (EDB) was updated with date-of-death information after the claims had been processed and paid.