State to withhold $750,000 over Medicaid backlog inaccuracies

The state health department says it will withhold $750,000 from a contractor that misreported the length of the state’s backlog of Medicaid applications. The backlog is more than four times larger than previously thought.

The Eagle wrote about the discrepancy on Friday.

Medicaid, called KanCare in Kansas, is the state- and federally-funded insurance program for low-income or disabled residents. Kansas thought it had lowered its backlog of applications to 3,480 people; in mid-May, it was up to 15,393.

Of those, 10,961 applicants have been waiting for more than 45 days for the state to process their applications.

Angela de Rocha, spokeswoman for the state health department, said a company contracted by the state to manage the backlog, called Accenture, was responsible for the reporting discrepancies.

She said she doesn’t know exactly when the $750,000 will be withheld but that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment made the decision a few weeks ago.

Accenture holds a $264 million contract with the state that began in 2012 and runs through August 2021.

De Rocha said the department had not yet planned any further repercussions for Accenture if it does not fix its backlog reporting issues.

The erroneous reports became public through a letter from Susan Mosier, secretary of the state health department, to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

De Rocha said she did not yet know whether the state received a response from the federal government about the inaccuracies.

The state’s letter was one of many it sends to the federal government.

The federal government became concerned about the size of Kansas’ backlog and required the state to submit biweekly reports about the backlog and what the state is doing to address it.

This story was originally published June 21, 2016 at 4:45 PM with the headline "State to withhold $750,000 over Medicaid backlog inaccuracies."