Name: Millions of dollars given to non-qualified Medicaid providers, NC state audit says
Brand: cbs17.com
SKU: cbs17-com-14
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Millions of dollars given to non-qualified Medicaid providers, NC state audit says

preview

Posted: Feb 18, 2021 / 06:10 PM ESTUpdated: Feb 19, 2021 / 09:58 AM ESTRALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN)– Scores of&nbsp;Medicaid patients&nbsp;are at risk and millions of dollars were given to non-qualified providers– that’s the conclusion of a scathing&nbsp;report&nbsp;by the state auditor.&nbsp;The state of North Carolina spends&nbsp;$14 billion a year on Medicaid services to provide over 2 million people with care they couldn’t normally afford.&nbsp;It’s all overseen by the NC&nbsp;Department&nbsp;of Health and Human Services.&nbsp;An&nbsp;audit from State Auditor Beth Wood’s office&nbsp;says NCDHHS failed to properly check qualifications of providers and sent&nbsp;$15 million in payments to &nbsp;&nbsp;Auditor&nbsp;Beth Wood said providers are supposed to be monitored by DHHS.“There are disciplinary checks looking to see if your license was suspended,&nbsp;or&nbsp;did you lose your accreditation,” she said.&nbsp;DHHS was supposed to do that&nbsp;checking&nbsp;electronically using two so-called&nbsp;“web crawlers”&nbsp;which would search for red flags about license issues, but she said&nbsp;both programs failed&nbsp;to operate correctly&nbsp;and agency never knew it.&nbsp;“They didn’t test their system to find out it wasn’t working,” she said.&nbsp;Over 27,000&nbsp;providers needed to be recertified and Wood’s audit pulled just a tiny sample of 191&nbsp;to see&nbsp;what&nbsp;was happening with them. The results were stunning.&nbsp;“Of the 191 we checked, 185 had not been recertified,” she said.&nbsp;She said one provider alone in that group&nbsp;which&nbsp;hadn’t been recertified was paid $11.2 million&nbsp;by the state.&nbsp;Wood said what really worries&nbsp;her&nbsp;is&nbsp;that&nbsp;there are scores&nbsp;of other&nbsp;providers in the larger group of 27,000&nbsp;needing&nbsp;reverification&nbsp;that&nbsp;are in the same position&nbsp;as the&nbsp;185 in the sample.&nbsp;&nbsp;“You haven’t identified all the individuals,” she said. “That is&nbsp;where&nbsp;the problem lies,&nbsp;all those who didn’t get&nbsp;caught&nbsp;but are still practicing.&nbsp;In its&nbsp;response to the audit, which was included in Wood’s report,&nbsp;&nbsp;DHHS&nbsp;said it said it&nbsp;“agreed with the findings”&nbsp;and is going to find ways to remedy the problem.&nbsp;Consumer investigator Steve Sbraccia asked Wood what happens with the money&nbsp;wrongly paid out.&nbsp;“For&nbsp;the&nbsp;$15 million&nbsp;we’ve identified,&nbsp;the DHHS can go back and claim the money,” she said.&nbsp;CBS 17&nbsp;had questions for DHHS&nbsp;about the problems presented in the audit.&nbsp;Sbraccia sent an email&nbsp;wanting to know if&nbsp;their agency&nbsp;will seek return of the funds as well as whether the agency will seek criminal charges be brought against those who were identified&nbsp;in&nbsp;the audit.&nbsp;&nbsp;DHHS&nbsp;responded&nbsp;&nbsp;saying it&nbsp;would be seeking reimbursement of the&nbsp;$15 million and will ask the state attorney general to seek criminal complaints against&nbsp;individuals who have&nbsp;credible evidence of fraud.In the meantime,&nbsp;&nbsp;the auditor says this isn’t over.&nbsp;She says&nbsp;her people are going back in a year to see if the problems were corrected.&nbsp;✕× Close Ad

Posted: Feb 18, 2021 / 06:10 PM ESTUpdated: Feb 19, 2021 / 09:58 AM ESTRALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN)– Scores of&nbsp;Medicaid patients&nbsp;are at risk and millions of dollars were given to non-qualified providers– that’s the conclusion of a scathing&nbsp;report&nbsp;by the state auditor.&nbsp;The state of North Carolina spends&nbsp;$14 billion a year on Medicaid services to provide over 2 million people with care they couldn’t normally afford.&nbsp;It’s all overseen by the NC&nbsp;Department&nbsp;of Health and Human Services.&nbsp;An&nbsp;audit from State Auditor Beth Wood’s office&nbsp;says NCDHHS...

public

Steve Sbraccia

cbs17.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Millions of dollars given to non-qualified Medicaid providers, NC state audit says

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS