State Audit Reveals Improper Spending

An audit released this week blisters the state’s Medicaid Home Help Program, saying it improperly spent $160 million over a three-year period. The funds represent nearly 18 percent of total expenditures from October 1, 2010, through September 30, 2013. The Home Help Program involves thousands of workers, often family members, providing in-home help to certain Medicaid recipients who need assistance making meals, getting dressed and other similar assistance. Gongwer News Service reports the major finding from the Office of the Auditor General was that the departments of Community Health and Human Services, which jointly run the program, did not obtain or obtain in a timely fashion sufficient documentation to ensure that providers had delivered the services paid for through a preauthorized payment process. As a result, auditors estimated that DCH improperly spent $146.4 million from October 1, 2010, through February 28, 2013. The audit’s other major finding: DCH could be liable for repaying the nearly $100 million federal share of Medicaid payments made for Home Help Program cases that were not monitored in accordance with established procedures.