Colorado sues feds over $12M in disputed claims
Suit involves low-income health outreach program
Colorado has sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in federal court, claiming that the federal government wrongfully denied $12 million of Medicaid payments.
The lawsuit was filed by the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing against U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who is seeking recoupment of the denied claims from Colorado.
The intergovernmental squabble is over funds paid to the Denver Health and Hospital Authority for an outreach program serving low-income pregnant women and children under age 19, the lawsuit says.
A message seeking comment from HHS was not answered.
Colorado dispersed the funds while following a federal mandate to approve and process Medicaid payments outside of government offices at qualifying hospitals and clinics to care for eligible participants in the program, the lawsuit says.
The federal human services department sought to recoup $12 million paid to Colorado in the federal financial participation program for services between 2000 and 2006.
The decision had been made even though the federal government does not dispute that DHHA performed the services.
Colorado appealed the decision, and the federal agency’s appeals board sent a letter June 9 denying the appeal.
The lawsuit says that the rejection was an “abuse of discretion” and asked the federal court to reverse the denial and prevent the federal government from recouping the $12 million it claims Colorado owes.
The dispute is the latest between Gov. John Hickenlooper’s administration and the federal government when it comes to safety-net programs for the poor.
Earlier this year, the state Department of Human Services was forced to repay the U.S. Department of Agriculture nearly $1 million after it misspent federal money earmarked for the state’s food assistance program. The state is disputing an additional $4.8 million federal sanction for missing targets in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance to unemployed low-income residents.