Medicaid

Some Recipients Neglect to Report U.S. Savings Bond Holdings Gao ID: HRD-89-43 January 18, 1989

GAO examined income and asset reporting by Medicaid recipients in nursing homes to determine the: (1) effectiveness of states' policies and procedures for verifying savings bond holdings; and (2) extent of holdings of recipients residing in Massachusetts nursing homes.

GAO found that: (1) as of April 1986, 143 Medicaid nursing home residents in Massachusetts had savings bond holdings in excess of the $2,000 statutory limit; (2) the residents had outstanding bonds worth a total of about $1.5 million, with individual holdings ranging from $2,000 to over $60,000; (3) 48 of 57 recipients' records did not disclose bond ownership or redemptions, while 1 made partial disclosure; (4) the 49 individuals should have been disqualified from receiving Medicaid benefits for filing false or incomplete applications; and (5) states did not have access to the Department of the Treasury's savings bond data files to verify individual Medicaid applicants' and recipients' bond holdings or redemptions.

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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