COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio’s Medicaid system suffers from high payment error rates and problems determining eligibility, among many issues the state Medicaid director blamed on the administration of former Gov. John Kasich.
Other problems identified by Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran include incorrect renewal dates, privacy breaches such as people receiving information about others, and incorrectly linking newborns to people who weren’t are their actual parents. In one case, a baby was linked to an 11-year-old child.
Corcoran said in a memo to Republican Gov. Mike DeWine this week she inherited “a mess” from the previous administration, and failure to fix problems could cost Ohio billions in federal penalties. The joint state and federal program provides health care for poor families and children.
Among findings from an audit by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services were a payment error rate of 50% and a 43% error rate for determining Medicaid eligibility.
A spokesman for Kasich said the former Republican governor inherited a troubled program that he improved and expanded to cover thousands more Ohioans.
“The state’s leadership now has the opportunity to build on eight years of progress,” Kasich spokesman Jim Lynch said.
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