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High-Error Programs

Of the risk-susceptible programs in 2010, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) designated 14 programs as “high-error”. OMB designates a program as high-error based on improper payment information in agencies’ annual performance and financial reports. The criteria for determining when a program is high-error are found in OMB guidance PDF Document. The high-error programs are those programs that reported roughly $750 million or more in improper payments in 2010, did not report an error amount in the current reporting year but previously reported an error amount over the threshold, or have not yet established a program error rate and have measured components that were above the threshold. Eleven out of the 14 high-error programs made up 94% of all reported improper payments in 2010. OMB is currently reviewing agency reporting for 2011, and will be designating the 2011 high-error programs later this year.

Select a program from the list below to view program details:

Program Agency Total Payments (outlays) Improper Payment Amounts Improper Payment Rates
Medicare Fee-for-Service Department of Health and Human Services $336.4B $28.8B 8.6%
Medicaid Department of Health and Human Services $269.2B $21.9B 8.1%
Unemployment Insurance (UI) Department of Labor $114.1B $13.7B 12.0%
Medicare Advantage (Part C) Department of Health and Human Services $112.2B $12.4B 11.0%
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Social Security Administration $50.3B $4.6B 9.1%
Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (RSDI) Social Security Administration $695.5B $4.5B 0.6%
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Department of Agriculture $64.7B $2.5B 3.8%
National School Lunch Program (NSLP) Department of Agriculture $10.7B $1.7B 16.0%
Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (Part D) Department of Health and Human Services $53.2B $1.7B 3.2%
Pell Grants Department of Education $36.5B $1.0B 2.7%
Rental Housing Assistance Programs Department of Housing and Urban Development $32.6B $1.0B 2.9%
Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Department of Health and Human Services $9.0B NR NR
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Department of the Treasury $64.7B NR NR

NR: No data has been reported for the current period

Note: All amounts are in billions of dollars