ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A newly released legislative audit suggests the Maryland Department of Health is attempting to correct its mishandling of millions in questionable Medicaid claims.
This comes as a follow-up to an initial audit back in November 2023.
That audit revealed many Maryland recipients that already got Medicaid benefits in other states.
Some didn't even have complete social security numbers, yet their claims were still processed.
Part of the issue involved people who were either dead or incarcerated receiving continued Medicaid support.
Between July 2018 and May 2022, over $3.5 million was spent on behalf of 5,615 deceased recipients.
The Health Department later verified 4,570 of the cases were correctly closed out.
However, payments issued incorrectly were not automatically recovered.
The department was hoping to complete that process by the end of April.
One problem led to another, because during that same period (July 2018 and May 2022), another $3.5 million in Medicaid benefits was paid on behalf of 1,954 incarcerated individuals.
Per federal and state regulations, Medicaid only covers certain fee-for-service claims, primarily inpatient hospital care, while someone is incarcerated.
Since then, the Department of Health says it identified 253 exact matches and 31 near matches.
All have been removed from Medicaid enrollment.
Another glaring issue concerned improper Medicaid claims at hospitals.
The State hired a contractor to specifically flag these sorts of cases, yet the 2023 audit indicated they failed to collect or recover the money associated with them, which amounted to just shy of $7 million.
In their latest update provided to auditors, the State said they recouped all relevant over-payments.
The November 2023 audit can be read below.
And, here is the follow-up to that issued last week.
