Washington: The U.S. Medicare program has declared that it anticipates recovering $4 billion from insurance firms, which offered up prescription coverage during last year (2006) as spending on medications that year, was lower than projected.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has told that it pays up Part D prescription plans beforehand, which are based on projected utilization and then computes concluding payments at the year end that are based on actual usage and additional information.

A CMS declaration said, “A number of factors led to this lower spending, including the fact that 2006 marked the first time that plans were bidding on the new Part D program and the fact there are higher levels of generic drug utilization in Part D than anticipated.”

In 2006, Aetna Inc, Cigna Corp, UnitedHealth Group and other companies has been offered Medicare prescription drug coverage.

CMS added that the drug plans can appeal Medicare's calculation of the amount of money to be recovered.