ms. dalynd ms. king for sharing their expertise with us today. according to gao government-wide improper payments total approximately $125 billion in 2010. medicare alone accounted for nearly 48 billion of those, as my colleague indicated. that is almost 40% of the improper payments in the entire government. i find these figures deeply troubling, and that is why we look forward to hearing from our witnesses today. president obama has taken many positive steps towards reducing improper payments since the beginning of his administration. in 2009 the president signed executive order 13520 which sought to increase transparency in and agencies' accountability regarding improper payment. in 2010 the president also issued two memorandums that instructed omb and agencies to make it a priority not only to find improper payments, but to recapture the money that was paid. additionally, the administration announced last year that the centers for medicaid and medicare services will cut the fee-for-service

ms. daly. i want to -- >> i want to thank you for the opportunity to be here today to discuss improper payments in the medicare. in 2010, medicare covered 47 million elderly and disabled beneficiaries and had an outlay of about $516 billion, one of the largest federal programs. it consists of four parts, a and b, fee-for-service, part c which is advantage, and part d, prescription coverage. it is any payments that should not have been made, an incredible amount, overpayments, or underpayment. for 2010, hhs reported an estimate of almost $48 billion of improper payments. this was attributable just to medicare fee-for-service and medicare advantage. from a government-my perspective, the medicare program represents 38% of the $125 billion in estimated improper payments reported by the 70 programs. hhs estimated improper payments is incomplete because it has yet to report a comprehensive improper payment rate for the prescription drug program. as ms. snyder indicated, hhs is going to release a comp