Officials: Ex-chief of Medicare broke law
Investigators want former head of the agency to return pay because of threats.

The New York Times
September 8, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration illegally withheld data from Congress on the cost of the new Medicare law, and as a penalty, the former head of the Medicare agency, Thomas Scully, should repay seven months of his salary to the government, federal investigators said Tuesday.

The investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said Scully had threatened to fire the chief Medicare actuary, in violation of federal appropriations law.

Accordingly, they said, federal money could not be used to pay Scully's salary after he began making the threats in May 2003.

The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress formerly known as the General Accounting Office, applied its interpretation of the law to findings previously made by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Bush administration did not quarrel with those facts but said Tuesday it was unconstitutional for Congress to compel the disclosure of data over executive-branch objections.

Scully's salary in 2003 was $145,600, the department said. He would owe the government $84,933 under the legal opinion issued Tuesday.

Asked if he would repay the money, Scully said: "No. I'm not required to. It's a matter of principle. I never did anything wrong, and I am proud of every minute of my three years at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."

Scully now works for a law firm and a private investment firm.

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