Legislation (S-1073) pending in the Senate to expand agencies’ access to death records kept by the SSA likely would have only a limited impact in reducing improper payments, according to a CBO analysis.
The bill would require SSA to share its complete death records with more agencies and for a broader range of purposes. It also would make the complete death records, rather than only the SSA death master file, part of the Do Not Pay program, which allows agencies to check various databases before making payments.
SSA already provides complete death records to some federal agencies, such as the IRS, as well as to some state agencies, such as those involved in the food stamps program, CBO noted. In addition, some other agencies already use subsets of those records.
If the bill passes, there would likely be more frequent checks against the more complete records than occur under current law and “would probably reduce the amount of mistaken payments. However, large benefit-paying agencies generally already use the complete death records, so CBO expects that enacting the bill would not reduce the number of payments to deceased people by a significant amount,” CBO said.
The bill cleared the Senate committee level last year but hasn’t been scheduled for a floor vote.
