---
type: source
title: "Risk Adjustment Continues to Be a Major Focus in Medicare Advantage (DOJ/OIG Enforcement)"
author: "Morgan Lewis"
url: https://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/2025/04/risk-adjustment-continues-to-be-a-major-focus-in-medicare-advantage
date: 2025-04-01
domain: health
secondary_domains: []
format: report
status: null-result
last_attempted: 2026-03-11
priority: medium
tags: [risk-adjustment, false-claims-act, doj, oig, enforcement, upcoding, medicare-advantage]
processed_by: vida
processed_date: 2025-04-15
enrichments_applied: ["CMS 2027 chart review exclusion targets vertical integration profit arbitrage by removing upcoded diagnoses from MA risk scoring.md"]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
extraction_notes: "Primary extraction: bipartisan political convergence on MA reform as a novel claim. The enforcement statistics enrich the existing CMS 2027 chart review claim by confirming systemic upcoding across the industry. Agent notes correctly identified the bipartisan framing as the key insight—rare in healthcare policy and signals durable reform pressure."
---

## Content

### DOJ Enforcement Landscape

- Significant DOJ settlements in March-April 2025 based on alleged false diagnosis codes
- Government position: submitting unsupported diagnostic codes to reap higher capitated rates = False Claims Act violation
- Of 44 managed care audits by HHS OIG since 2017, 42 focused on diagnosis coding
- Audits found 70% of diagnosis codes not supported by medical records

### Legislative Action

- No UPCODE Act reintroduced March 2025 (originally introduced 2023)
- Bipartisan support for upcoding enforcement
- New CMS administrator (confirmed April 3, 2025) prioritizes upcoding enforcement

### Industry Impact

- Nearly every major MA plan has faced or is facing federal fraud allegations
- UnitedHealth, Humana, Elevance, Kaiser all involved in enforcement actions
- The enforcement focus creates regulatory risk for the entire MA industry

## Agent Notes
**Why this matters:** The enforcement trajectory shows bipartisan political will to address MA upcoding — rare in US healthcare politics. This compounds with V28 and chart review exclusion to create a multi-front reform pressure on MA economics.
**What surprised me:** The bipartisan framing. Healthcare policy is typically partisan, but MA overpayment reform has support from both sides (fiscal conservatives + progressive reformers).
**KB connections:** [[CMS 2027 chart review exclusion targets vertical integration profit arbitrage by removing upcoded diagnoses from MA risk scoring]]
**Extraction hints:** The bipartisan convergence on MA reform is itself a claim-worthy insight — it suggests the political economy has shifted enough that reform is likely.

## Curator Notes
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[CMS 2027 chart review exclusion targets vertical integration profit arbitrage by removing upcoded diagnoses from MA risk scoring]]
WHY ARCHIVED: Enforcement context complements the policy/regulatory sources — shows both regulatory and legal paths converging on risk adjustment reform.
EXTRACTION HINT: Focus on the bipartisan enforcement convergence, not individual cases.


## Key Facts
- 42 of 44 HHS OIG managed care audits since 2017 focused on diagnosis coding
- 70% of diagnosis codes found unsupported by medical records in OIG audits
- No UPCODE Act reintroduced March 2025 with bipartisan support
- New CMS administrator confirmed April 3, 2025, prioritizes upcoding enforcement
