No one has ever checked whether folks getting government employee insurance qualify...

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The Office of Personnel Management, which oversees health insurance for 8 million federal workers and their families at a cost of more than $60 billion a year, has never checked the eligibility of those on its rolls, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office, which has been pushing OPM for years to improve its oversight. And that failure is costing taxpayers billions and raising premiums for millions of civil servants.

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For 12 years, a Department of Transportation employee fraudulently enrolled his sister and niece on his federal health benefits plan. He claimed the two were his wife and stepchild.

An equipment repair worker at an Army facility in Alabama kept an ex-wife covered for 14 years, and was caught only when he tried to add his new wife. And at the Department of Justice, an employee added a friend and her friend’s four children, asserting they were her family members.

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Despite prodding from the GAO, the agency has no plans to conduct an audit because it said it would be too expensive. The agency relies on more than 160 government employing offices and more than 70 contracts with health insurance carriers to enroll and verify the eligibility of Federal Employees Health Benefits Program members.

That means the $120 million audit would come out of OPM’s budget while the savings accrue to enrolling agencies, according to OPM.

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