Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), today announced that PSI is investigating mismanagement of the Affordable Care Act healthcare exchanges. Working to hold the Administration accountable for Obamacare waste and mismanagement, PSI is reviewing whether adequate verification procedures were in place to ensure that roughly $15 billion in insurance subsidies paid out last year reached the people who actually qualify.

In connection with this inquiry, today, Portman sent a detailed letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell raising several important questions concerning the verification—including questions the Administration has failed to answer. Text of Portman’s letter can be found here.

Video of the Fox News report can be viewed here. The full article can be read here.

Senate panel probes ObamaCare aid confusion, as customers learn they owe IRS $$

FoxNews.com

Rich Edson

May 14, 2015

The Senate's top investigative committee has launched an inquiry into the system that's supposed to ensure ObamaCare tax credits go to the right customers for the right amounts – amid concerns that many Americans are getting inflated or improper subsidies.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who is leading the investigation, says because of the confusion with the system, millions of Americans are learning after the fact they inadvertently got too much money and now owe the IRS hundreds.

"I'm concerned that the subsidy eligibility process is so complicated that many consumers believed they were receiving cheaper insurance coverage than they ultimately got," Portman said in a statement.

Portman, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, announced his panel's investigation in a letter sent Thursday to HHS Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell. "I have repeatedly raised questions regarding efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services to prevent improper payments through the exchanges," he wrote, saying his prior inquiries were insufficiently answered.

Portman cited two investigations into the government's income-verification systems. The Government Accountability Office said in 2014 its investigators secured subsidies using false identities in 11 out of 12 undercover attempts. Also last year, an HHS inspector general report found the department "did not have procedures or did not follow procedures to ensure" against government overpayments.

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Others might have received credits in error because of poor system safeguards, and Portman noted this risks "wasting billions in hard-earned tax dollars."

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Critics say there is still too little known about the effectiveness of the administration's income-verification system.

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Committee staff is also investigating the state-based exchanges. Portman is requesting HHS name any state running an exchange that has "stopped attempting to verify applicants' eligibility to enroll in ACA [Affordable Care Act] health care plans or to receive ACA subsidies." ObamaCare shoppers select insurance plans from state-run exchanges in 13 states and the District of Columbia.

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Portman's letter to Burwell also references a 2013 federal regulation that allowed, until this year, the administration to rely more on applicants' submitted information than independent verification. That reliance, however, is the foundation of much of the U.S. tax system, noted one ObamaCare supporter and law professor.

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Portman's letter to Burwell requests responses to more than two dozen questions on the income-verification systems, how they performed during the law's first year and whether any failings were resolved. Only the committee's Republican majority staff is involved in the inquiry, according to Portman. The chairman's letter asked HHS staff to respond by May 29…