In a report issued on March 6, 2025, the Office of Inspector General in the Department of Health and Human Services called out the potential for fraudsters to target electronic funds transfers (EFTs) in Medicare and Medicaid. The report recommends the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services:

• Engage Medicare Administrative Contractors on improving security measures.
• Share information with state Medicaid Agencies to help improve security measures.
• Support periodic information sharing to mitigate evolving threats.

The report explains that the likelihood of fraud occurring in this way is when a fraudster contacts a payer via Medicare or Medicaid and ask to have a provider’s depository information updated. The next time the payer processes claims for that provider, the funds will be diverted to the new accounts operated by the fraudster. This is considered a high risk of high loss because of the total amount of funds expended in Medicare and Medicaid and also because the vast majority of those transactions use EFTs. This will have no immediate impact on providers but is another target on the programs for possible improper payments. The full report is available here.