New York paid $28 million in Medicaid payments for 20,000 people receiving benefits in other states, audit finds

New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on Tuesday said that from 2004 to 2008 the state Health Department made about $28 million in Medicaid payments to about 20,000 people who also were enrolled in Medicaid programs in other states, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports.

DiNapoli said that the department must do a better job of making sure counties promptly check federal records to see if those getting benefits in New York are not also receiving them in another state.

DiNapoli said that while some of those who enrolled were eligible for the state's Medicaid program, millions of dollars could have been saved if beneficiaries eligible in other states had not collected New York benefits. "We can't afford to waste millions of dollars on people who don't live here," he said. According to DiNapoli, counties have paid $3 million in managed care premiums for residents of other states, which the Health Department has yet to recover, and an investigation by New York City's Human Resources Administration into $11 million of similar payments has yet to be finished.

The state Health Department said in response to the audit that it intends to institute measures to reduce payments for dual state Medicaid beneficiaries (Gallagher, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 3/4).