Medicaid

Improvements Needed in Programs To Prevent Abuse Gao ID: HRD-87-75 September 1, 1987

GAO reviewed Medicaid abuse in six states and provider abuse in four states to: (1) determine whether the states were effective in identifying Medicaid abuse; and (2) assess the extent of states' actions to apply sanctions against Medicaid abusers.

GAO found that: (1) the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has not taken effective action to strengthen management controls over states' postpayment utilization review programs; (2) some states do not effectively use their computerized management information systems to identify potential Medicaid abuse; (3) some states review only a small portion of the potentially abusive recipients they identify; (4) most states have applied few sanctions against abusive Medicaid recipients; and (5) the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has adequate resources to provide technical assistance to states with problems in using their information systems.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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