Over $10M in Medicaid paid to dead

ALBANY — The dead lived on in state Medicaid rolls, costing taxpayers millions of dollars in unnecessary premiums, a new audit revealed.

Health Department officials continued to pay Medicaid managed care insurance premiums for more than 7,400 patients who had already died, costing taxpayers $10.5 million, according to the audit released Thursday by state Controller Thomas DiNapoli.

The payments for the dead were among 190,686 “improper or questionable” managed-care premium payments, totaling $72.6 million, that were made between made between Oct. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2014, the audit revealed.

Most of the improper premiums involved patients who, after enrolling in Medicaid, were subsequently found to be ineligible for the program. The Health Department, however, continued to pay the premiums.

DiNapoli’s office urged the Health Department and the office of the Medicaid inspector general to try to recover the money and implement better tracking procedures to ensure that deceased or ineligible recipients do not continue to cost taxpayers money.

According to the controller’s office, only $7.4 million of the improper claims had been recovered.

“The department and (inspector general) should assess all of the improper and questionable premium payments we identified and recover overpayments, as appropriate,” the audit stressed.

A state Health Department spokeswoman rejected the audit’s findings.

“The controller’s audit shows an utter lack of understanding of Medicaid Managed Care and vastly overstates the frequency and volume of potential overpayments despite extensive efforts by DOH and (inspector general) to provide information and education on these matters,” said Health Department spokeswoman Jill Montag.

Montag said the Office of the Medicaid inspector general regularly conducts audits to screen out Medicaid recipients who don’t belong in the program and recover inappropriate payments.