House Republican leader Paul Stam says that a $10 million investment in software could save the state $100 million a year in improper or fraudulent medicaid claims.

Stam, an Apex Republican, pitched the plan at a news conference Tuesday. Stam said the state's current budget crisis — a shortfall of $3 billion — makes it a perfect time to adopt a proposal that surfaces annually.

New software could spot payments that shouldn't be made, either because the procedure isn't covered by Medicaid or the provider isn't eligible for payments from the program, which provides health coverage for the poor. Stam said a new system could also better spot fraud. Based on the experiences of other states, the $100 million figure is a conservative one, he said. The state already goes after improper payments, but usually only after the money has been spent.

"There is a process. They just don't use the state of the art science," Stam said.

The $10 million would be paid over two years.

State legislators have now asked for $417.3 million.

Sixteen more bills filed since Dome last checked have added another $72.7 million in requested spending, even as the state faces a $2 billion shortfall.

The largest request of the most recent batch is $29.8 million for pay raises for community college faculty and staff. The smallest is $200,000 for research on what is believed to be the sunken remains of Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship of the pirate Blackbeard.

Other spending bills would fund more Learn and Earn high schools, hire 100 graduation coaches in middle and high schools, buy software to flag improper Medicaid payments, design a new life science and biotechnology building for East Carolina University, expand medical education and research at ECU and UNC-Chapel Hill, provide differentiated funding for community college Allied Health Programs, run spay and neuter programs and hire eight new computer forensic agents to prosecute sexual predators.

Six other bills are companions to spending requests already filed.

In all the requests amount to 21 percent of the estimated shortfall.

The requests also added another $105.7 million in spending next year, for a total of $138.5 million in 2010-11.

Ongoing coverage of spending bills is available here.