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The dead don’t need health insurance coverage. But in Florida, private health insurance companies managing the state’s Medicaid program still made money from the dead, according to a report issued Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Auditors with HHS’s Office of Inspector General estimate Florida paid about $26 million over five years to Medicaid insurers for coverage of people who had already died — largely as a result of outdated information in state databases and a lack of collaboration among different agencies. (Chang, 12/13)

Leaders of the private companies running Iowa’s Medicaid program declined to tell legislators Tuesday whether they plan to ask the state for more money next year. The three companies have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in Iowa since they started running the giant health-insurance program April 1, a recent report showed. During a legislative oversight meeting Tuesday, Sen. Joe Bolkcom noted that Gov. Terry Branstad agreed to give the companies an extra $33 million in state money in the middle of the first contract year. That money is to trigger more than $90 million in extra federal money to the companies. (Leys, 12/13)