HHS' Office of Inspector General estimates Illinois paid at least $4.6 million in Medicaid benefits for people who had died from October 2015 through September 2017.
The state didn't always process death information in its Medicaid Management Information System, and the state did not recover the payments made to private payers on behalf of the deceased patients, according to OIG.
OIG called on Illinois to pay the federal government $3.2 million for its share of Medicaid payments for deceased patients and identify and repay additional spending on deceased patients that occurred outside of the audit period. It also recommended Illinois seek refunds from the managed care organizations for those payments.
The state accepted the recommendations and is reviewing the audit information to confirm patient deaths.
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