Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Audit Finds Kansas Spent $2.3M Trying To Clear Medicaid Application Backlog
The state has spent an additional $2.3 million on staffing to handle thousands of backlogged health insurance applications for people with low incomes or who are severely disabled, according to an audit. The audit looked into ongoing problems with the state鈥檚 Medicaid application backlog. Medicaid is the state and federal health insurance program. Kansas has a privatized Medicaid system called KanCare. The audit also discovered that as of mid-August, nearly 35,000 people have renewal applications pending and are waiting to find out if they will continue to receive services. (Dunn, 9/21)
Legislative auditors said Wednesday they can鈥檛 confirm that the Medicaid application backlog numbers state officials have reported are correct. Applications have been backlogged for about a year following the rocky rollout of a new computer system, an administrative decision that funneled all applications through a single state agency and a larger-than-expected influx of applications during the Affordable Care Act open enrollment period. The auditors said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment gets the backlog number from Accenture, the contractor that built the new software platform known as the Kansas Eligibility Enforcement System, or KEES. (Marso, 9/21)
The owner of a nursing home 80 miles northeast of Nashville claimed more than $2 million in Medicaid expenses that were instead spent for personal use, including purchases at discount stores, restaurants, furniture stores, nail salons, personal travel and, in one instance, to help pay for the wedding of the owner's daughter. Mabry Healthcare &聽Rehab Center聽reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses to care for patients on聽Medicaid, including $176,000 in gift cards, $134,000 in personal travel expenses and $81,000 in personal legal fees over a five year period, according to the audit. Owner Kathleen Graves also claimed for reimbursement of $322,500 paid to a business run by her husband, $33,162 spent on her daughter's college tuition and $1,184 for her daughter's wedding. (Wadhwani, 9/21)
