Highmark Medicare Services, Inc., Understated Its Medicare Segment Pension Assets and Understated the Medicare Segment Excess Pension Liabilities As of January 1, 2012

摘要

Medicare contractors are required to separately account for the Medicare segment pension plan assets based on the requirements of their Medicare contracts and Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) 412 and 413. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) incorporated this requirement into the Medicare contracts beginning with fiscal year 1988. In addition, in situations such as contract terminations, the Medicare contracts require contractors to identify excess Medicare pension assets and liabilities in accordance with the CAS. Previous Office of Inspector General reviews found that Medicare contractors did not always correctly identify and update the segmented pension assets. The objectives of this review were to determine whether Highmark Medicare Services, Inc. (Highmark), complied with Federal requirements and the Medicare contracts pension segmentation requirements when (1) implementing the prior audit recommendations to decrease the Medicare Part A segment pension assets and increase the Medicare Part B segment pension assets as of January 1, 2002, (2) updating the Medicare segments pension assets from January 1, 2002, to January 1, 2012, and (3) determining the Medicare segment excess pension liabilities as a result of the Medicare segment closing.