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The state’s Medicaid program was routinely billed for home health care services that were never provided or were not medically necessary. Providers submitted documents with missing dates and signatures. Sometimes basic information like a patient’s medical history was nowhere to be found. These and other alleged violations were uncovered in an audit of nine agencies that do business with the state’s Medicaid program, called MassHealth — part of an effort by Governor Charlie Baker’s administration to rein in soaring spending on home health services. (McCluskey, 9/18)

State Division of Corrections officials project having inmates on Medicaid has saved the division more than $1 million in medical treatment for inmates this year so far. The Division has been signing up eligible inmates for Medicaid since January 2014, when West Virginia expanded its program to cover those who make up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line, a provision of the Affordable Care Act. Medicaid will pay for treatment of inmates only after they have been admitted to a hospital for more than 24 hours. So far, 367 inmates have signed up for Medicaid once they've been in the hospital for more than 24 hours, Debbie Hissom, health services administrator for the Division of Corrections, said earlier this month. (Kersey, 9/19)

Medicaid costs are expected to grow again in the next state budget – but the increase will be less than in recent years. The state Department of Health Services is requesting a $450 million funding increase to cover Medicaid spending in the next biennial budget. In her agency's biennial budget request, Secretary Linda Seemeyer called the sum "a significant amount of funding" and "by far, the largest component of the Department of Health Services Budget." She added, however, "this increase is small by historical standards." (White, 9/16)