Ineligible Medicaid recipients cost Va. millions, By Jim Nolan, October 13, 2011, Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Errors by local Department of Social Services caseworkers in enrolling ineligible Medicaid recipients are responsible for the greatest number of improper payments in Virginia’s share of the program, according to an extensive review by the legislature’s watchdog agency. It found that the state’s administration of the Medicaid program is overly complex and not automated. It also needs investments in technology and greater oversight to guarantee it is not overpaying managed-care organizations for services. Errors in enrolling ineligible recipients could have cost the state somewhere between $18 million and $263 million in fiscal 2009, according to the report – requested by lawmakers in 2010 and presented Tuesday to lawmakers by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission…”
Tag: Computer systems
State Medicaid Programs – North Dakota, Utah, California
- Medicaid change delayed, By Dale Wetzel (AP), September 16, 2011, Jamestown Sun: “A chronically delayed new computer software system to handle North Dakota’s Medicaid bills, which was to be finished in nine months, will not be working until mid-2013, an executive told state legislators Thursday. The project was originally scheduled to be finished two years ago. Last summer, a vice president for the software’s developer, Affiliated Computer Services Inc., promised it would be functioning by June 2012. ACS is a unit of Xerox Corp…”
- Utah explores extending Medicaid to inmates, By Kirsten Stewart, September 15, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah health officials are exploring expanding the state’s Medicaid program to cover inmates’ hospital stays and doctors’ office visits. Inmates have traditionally been barred from the state-federal health insurance program, which caters to the poor and disabled. Currently, the Department of Corrections contracts directly with the University of Utah’s hospital and clinics for procedures that cannot be handled at the prison infirmary, and the state picks up the tab. Moving inmates onto Medicaid would shift most of the funding burden onto the federal government, explained state Medicaid director Michael Hales on Thursday at an advisory board meeting. In the past, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been loathe to shoulder what has long been a state obligation, said Hales. But the agency has recently signaled a willingness to bend the rules…”
- Calif. Medicaid expansion: A lifeline for ex-convicts, By Sarah Varney, September 13, 2011, National Public Radio: “California has embarked on an ambitious expansion of its Medicaid program, three years ahead of the federal expansion that the health law requires in 2014. At least half a million people are expected to gain coverage – mostly poor adults who never qualified under the old rules because they didn’t have kids at home. Among those who stand to benefit right now are ex-offenders. Inmates often leave California prisons with no consistent place to get medical care. But that’s changing…”
Hybrid Welfare Eligibility System – Indiana
Ind. FSSA welfare ‘hybrid’ poised to expand, By Eric Bradner, July 24, 2011, Evansville Courier and Press: “A year and a half ago, Indiana’s human services agency decided to scrap some parts of its ‘modernization’ effort and replace it with a new way of handling welfare benefits. The Family and Social Services Administration piloted its ‘hybrid’ system – one that combined the technological advances of the botched effort and the in-person touch that existed before 2008 – in 10 Southwestern Indiana counties. Eighteen months later, the state is expanding that hybrid way of determining whether Hoosiers qualify for welfare and delivering those benefits to 72 of Indiana’s 92 counties. A look at data on error rates, timeliness, case backlogs and more show that across the board, the hybrid system is outperforming its two predecessors – the paper-based system in place before 2008, and the computerized one in place after that…”