A new audit report says Washington could save $13 million over the next two years if it hires more people to check applications for Medicaid that increased dramatically under the Affordable Care Act.
The extra employees would mean people who don’t qualify would be moved off subsidized care faster. A state auditor’s report issued this week said the Health Care Authority had a backlog of 112,000 cases that needed verifying as of this summer. That meant the agency needed an average of 120 days to verify whether people who applied for Medicaid were qualified under the ACA. Until those checks are complete, applicants receive subsidized health care.
If the investigation shows they aren’t eligible, federal rules say the state isn’t reimbursed for the subsidies they received.
Auditors say the agency should ask the Legislature for money to hire more employees, work with the union to establish performance benchmarks, and set priorities for reducing the backlog. The backlog began in 2014, when the state expanded eligibility for Medicaid under the ACA.
The agency increased staff to handle a predicted increase of about 237,000 adults. It actually had 511,000 new applications, but did not increase staff to handle the higher volume. (Spokesman-Review)
