State Auditor's Claims About Wealthy Receiving Medicaid Were Misleading, Advocates Claim
Two top advocacy groups are accusing Mississippi State Auditor Shad White of misleading Mississippians with a report claiming that up to 5% of Mississippians receiving Medicaid do so fraudulently. White announced in a statement on Tuesday that his office had discovered that the Mississippi Division of Medicaid was “potentially handing out millions to ineligible people.”
“We now have enough data to show there are millions of dollars of potential savings if we can prevent ineligible people from getting on Medicaid. The benefits should only be going to those who deserve to be on the program,” White, a Republican, said in a statement on Tuesday.
American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi Executive Director Jarvis Dortch told the Mississippi Free Press on Wednesday that White’s public announcement, which sampled 180 Medicaid beneficiaries for its findings, failed to emphasize key details included in the audit. The omissions included that the auditor could not verify that the 14 “potential” cases of fraud cited were, in fact, fraud.
“The audit itself says that they are speculating that 180 may not be eligible. … Even in the audit, it points out that they’re looking at data from 2018 because of the pandemic, at the earliest 2019,” Dortch said.
Read more: https://www.mississippifreepress.org/14426/state-auditors-claims-about-wealthy-receiving-medicaid-were-misleading-advocates-claim/
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