State owes feds $300m for overbilling

The state must repay about $300 million to the federal government for overbilling Medicaid.

Starting last November, public hospital Medicaid payments were improperly billed to the federal government rather than to a state account, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services, Lynn Bonner reports.

The state has agreed to repay $200 million by the end of the month, and the rest by the end of the year.

"This mistake should not have been made," DHHS secretary Lanier Cansler said in a statement. "Originating almost eight months ago, it should have been identified and reported earlier. I have discussed the matter with the Governor, and I am aggressively working to strengthen the internal controls and will take whatever other remedial actions may be necessary."

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Good news? Of a sort.....maybe.

Submitted by domewatcher on July 26, 2009 - 11:26am.

This news…. in one way….is very good news!

I must admit I have been having doubts about some of the things happening in Raleigh. I am ashamed to admit that I felt there was something untoward in the matter of the missing emails and the disappearing travel records, Ms. Mary’s job and the loaner car.

But if you can make $300,000,000 errors like this…..then it’s pretty easy to lose some emails and travel records. I’m surprised they didn’t lose the computers, the network and the plans for the pier.

This restorative power of this $300,000,000 error is like an elixir to my soul. This error has restored my faith in my fellow man. After all, if you can make $300,000,000 errors …..well, let’s just say it opens up the field and makes other errors seem petty.

Maybe this error explains away a lot of the other stuff. And, by the way, "I believe it is peace for our time………."

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Do we really have a budget deficit ?

Submitted by domewatcher on July 26, 2009 - 8:37am.

If we were to find a half dozen or so of these $300,000,000 errors in our favor, then we would be about $1.8 billion ahead. We would not need a $1.6 billion tax increase.

Maybe we should take the time to check for some errors in our favor. Look in the glove boxes of these state cars to see what we can recover. Look in the trunk. Look in the storage closet at the office. Sell off some of the overstock. Sell those spare parts for equipment we no longer have.

We may be able to handle this budget deficit without a tax increase.

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Re: State owes feds $300m for overbilling

Submitted by domewatcher on July 25, 2009 - 10:15am.

I am all for cutting spending!

But I do believe we need to increase spending for DHHS. After reading this article about the $300,000,000 error, I believe we will be faced with a new wave of depressed people. I mean this mess depresses even the most postive of people. I can see a wave of newly diagnosed people when they read about $300,000,000 government billing errors over an eight month period.

And when you thought it could not get worse..........

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