Friday, May 8, 2015

States are Wasting Millions by keeping Ineligible Recipients on ObamaCare’s Medicaid Rolls

That sound you hear ... is your tax dollars being flushed away:
States are wasting millions of taxpayer dollars under ObamaCare's massive Medicaid expansion by failing to regularly check the eligibility of program recipients, critics charge.
Under the Affordable Care Act, millions of people were enrolled in the expanded Medicaid, a jointly run state and federal program that primarily provides free or low-cost health care to low-income people, the elderly and disabled. Federal law requires that states annually verify the eligibility of recipients -- but some are not, and that means tens of thousands of ineligible people are receiving benefits.
Arkansas, for instance, has failed to comply with the law, and internal emails from the Arkansas Department of Human Services reveal officials have yet to begin what's known as a "redetermination."
"We're trying to hold the DHS accountable for the promises they made, and make sure that the people who are on the program actually qualify for it," said state Sen. Bryan King.
According to emails between King and Arkansas DHS Director John Selig, the state applied for and was issued two waivers from the federal government granting extensions for their "redetermination" deadline.
But the delay is costing taxpayers money. Selig estimated in a report to a Joint Budget Committee that an eligibility review could remove up to 40,000 people from the state's Medicaid system -- saving taxpayers up to $20 million a month.
"The fact that they aren't doing this already in a program riddled with cost overruns shows their lack of regard for taxpayer dollars funded by hardworking Americans," said Charles Siler, director of media relations for the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA).
A similar situation -- stemming from problems launching ObamaCare websites -- exists in Massachusetts, Siler said, but fiscal watchdogs also blame the federal government for allowing states to miss their deadlines.
"What Arkansas and Massachusetts tell us is that the Obama administration doesn't care about being responsible with the billions of taxpayer dollars being wasted by ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion," FGA senior fellow Josh Archambault said. "In truth, we have yet to uncover how many other states the feds are allowing to sidestep the law, and these states may simply be the tip of the iceberg."
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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