(boston.com) ALBANY, N.Y. –The state paid medical providers $3.6 million in the past three years for thousands of Medicaid patients who were dead, according to an audit released Wednesday.
One nursing home collected $15,000 for a patient two years after the patient died, according to the audit by state Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
“It’s safe to assume this has been an issue for years,” said Jeff Gordon, spokesman for the comptroller’s office.
The audit covered the April 1, 2003 through Feb. 3, 2006 and found payments being made for 4,277 dead patients. Hevesi’s office could not provide an estimate of how much the state may have paid for dead patients prior to the audit period.
Improper payments were made in part because the state Health Department doesn’t have a uniform process for local officials to take patients out of an electronic system after they die, according to the audit.
“They weren’t connecting the dots, taking people out (of the system) and notifying the Health Department,” Gordon said.
The state Health Department will review the cases and try to recover the lost money, said Marc Carey, a department spokesman. (more…)
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