Scully pressured actuary, didn't break law: OIG reports

According to a report in this afternoon's "Daily Dose" (by Modern Healthcare), the DHHS OIG has concluded that Tom Scully did, indeed, pressure the CMS chief actuary to withhold the true price tag ($524 billion over 10 years) of the Medicare prescription drug benefit from Congress last fall. More than that, the Administration's earlier (and affirmatively false) figure of $395 billion was allowed to stand, because of Republicans in Congress who announced they would not support a reform package that cost more than $400 billion. No action will be taken against Scully, who no longer works for the government (he's in the DC office of Alston & Bird), and the OIG has further concluded that no criminal laws were violated. Congress itself is looking into that question, so time will tell. This story broke with the announcement that the OIG would be testifying about its conclusions before Sen. Grassley's Senate Finance Committee this afternoon. (Nothing about this appears on the committee's web site, on the OIG's "current testimony" web page, or -- needless to say -- Alston & Bird's web site as of 4:00pm today.)