• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Gov’t audit insider: Aloha state over-bills the feds

Healthcare Auditing Weekly, March 30, 2004

Hawaii's State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) improperly reported or claimed approximately $1.4 million dollars in expenditures, a recent Office of Inspector General audit revealed.

During the course of the audit, the OIG performed the following:

§          Reviewed federal laws and Hawaii's administrative rules and policy guidelines for Medicaid and SCHIP

§          Interviewed state officials to understand the inner-workings of the SCHIP program and how it interacts with Hawaii's other state Medicaid programs

§          Examined the quarterly Medicaid statement of expenditures reports and supporting documentation

§          Ran computer analyses to compare supporting SCHIP documentation with eligibility status of beneficiaries

§          Selected a sample of 100 SCHIP beneficiaries from Hawaii's state records to sample eligibility of certain beneficiaries

The federal government paid $947,411 to match expenditures that were not appropriately billed to the SCHIP program. Subsequently, the state will credit the SCHIP program for $1.4 million in misidentified expenditures, and will reimburse the government for the $947,411 in matched funds.

The program also provided services to six beneficiaries who did not meet OIG eligibility requirements, but the OIG determined the cost resulting from this error to be "immaterial," and did not pursue any financial recourse.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive