Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera is confident the Medicaid program is headed in the right direction after the implementation of a new computer check system that verifies a person’s income automatically, instead of the old program that relied on self-reporting. Purpera says on a whole the new system is a good start, but…
“They need to begin incorporating tax data in that system. They did not design it that way, and that wasn’t their plan. We have made that recommendation to incorporate that tax data, and they are supposedly going to do that in May.”
On Tuesday, Senator John Kennedy criticized LDH, saying he did not trust the new computer system, or the people in charge of running it.
Kennedy says LDH has been uncooperative with the Auditor, an accusation Secretary Rebekah Gee disputes. Purpera says they have a good working relationship with the department, but occasionally there are disagreements.
“I do realize that the Department of Health has a goal of insuring services are delivered, and so those goals sometimes collide, because I want to make sure that every person that is eligible is truly eligible.”
Purpera says the department has been receptive to his ideas, and cited the recent system wide income check that revealed thousands of ineligible enrollees as one example.
Senator Kennedy has called for Secretary Gee to be fired, citing the tens of millions of dollars spent on Medicaid recipients who were not income eligible. Purpera says an audit did reveal that a significant portion of the past Medicaid population may have been income eligible.
“One showed that as much as eight percent of those that we examined were not eligible according to their income levels.”
Gee defended the department saying the funds were not wasted, and most of it was federal money.
