Legislation has been introduced in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee designed to stop millions in payments to deceased individuals by improving data and oversight.
Introduced by committee chair Tom Carper, D-Del., and ranking member Tom Coburn, R-Okla., the Improper Payments Agency Cooperation Enhancements Act builds on improper payment laws passed in 2010 and 2012 by giving agencies new tools to improve coordination.
"Our bill ensures that the federal government makes it a higher priority to keep track of people who have died, shares that information with key federal agencies, and ultimately prevents payments to people who are obviously no longer eligible for federal benefits and other federal payments," said Carper.
"This bill will improve the Social Security Administration’s management of the file while increasing real-time data sharing with other agencies to ensure the most up-to-date information is available on beneficiaries before payments are disbursed," Coburn stated.
The bill’s introduction follows a hearing in May that examined inadequate sharing among federal agencies of basic death data maintained by the SSA, namely through its death master file. The version most agencies rely on is an infrequently updated and partial version.
The bill would give all federal agencies access to the complete DMF – not just agencies with beneficiary program, require the use of death master data to curb improper payments, improve data sharing on the deceased, and require agencies to share best practices on managing retirement programs.