Department of Health

Medicaid Claims Processing Accuracy

The Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) is a centralized, automated medical assistance information and payment system that is operated by a fiscal agent under a contract with the Department of Health. The State Comptroller maintains audit staff on site to conduct continuous audits of the MMIS, including weekly examinations of the accuracy of the Medicaid claims that are processed. During the year ended March 31, 2002, these weekly examinations found that health care providers were overpaid $29.1 million and may have been overpaid an additional $1.1 million. Most of these overpayments were made because third-party insurance coverage was not taken into account, claim forms were incorrectly completed by providers, or the reimbursed treatment may not have been medically necessary. We also identified an error that would have resulted in an overpayment of about $120,000, if actions were not taken to correct the error before the payment was processed. In addition, through the joint efforts of the State Comptroller’s auditors and Department staff, certain health care providers that had yet to repay past overpayments were identified and about $500,000 in overpayments were recovered from these providers.

For a complete copy of Report 2001-D-3 click here.
For a copy of the associated follow-up report click here.