Grassley sends letter to Minnesota questioning Medicaid 'donation'

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton Thursday questioning if the federal government should receive a portion of a "donation" a nonprofit health insurer made to Minnesota's Medicaid program and why Minnesota classified the payment as such.

Minneapolis Star Tribune: UCare's $30 Million Payment To Minnesota Questioned 
A $30 million payment to Minnesota coffers last year by one of the state's nonprofit health plans is coming under renewed scrutiny after an influential U.S. senator on Thursday questioned whether part of that largesse belongs to the federal government. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R- Iowa, sent letters to Gov. Mark Dayton, the Department of Justice and four HMOs saying he wanted to gain "a better understanding of the nature of the $30 million 'donation'" made by UCare. "I am particularly concerned about evidence I received which appears to suggest that the funds returned by UCare were tailored in a way to avoid returning any of said funds to the federal government," wrote Grassley, the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee (Crosby, 3/8).

(St. Paul) Pioneer Press: UCare's $30M Payment To Minnesota Under Scrutiny
When a health plan in Minneapolis made a $30 million payment last year to help the state through its budget crisis, should the federal government have received a piece of the action? That's the question at the heart of a letter sent Thursday to the Dayton administration by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. The payment came from a nonprofit health plan called UCare, which the state hired to manage care for patients covered by the Medicaid health insurance program (Snowbeck, 3/8).

Minnesota Public Radio: Grassley Questions Minn.'s Handling Of Medicaid Funds
The ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton Thursday asking why UCare, a Minnesota health plan company, repaid $30 million in Medicaid funds to the state as a "gift," rather than a reimbursement. In the letter, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he's concerned that the way the funds were returned was meant to avoid reimbursing money to the federal government. Grassley was referring to e-mails sent by Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson in March 2011, in which she described how UCare should draft its press release about returning the Medicaid funds to the state (Collins, 3/8).