State made Medicaid payments for dead people

The state made $426,000 in Medicaid payments for 10 people who were dead, and the numbers may reach into the millions of dollars for more than 300 people, according to a state legislative audit released Wednesday.

Auditors matched Social Security death records to the names of people for whom payments were made. They were studying whether the federal database would be a way to check for improper payments and find people who died out of state.

Between January 2008 and last August, they found $2.5 million in erroneous payments for 323 people who may have already been dead. Of 20 they checked into further, half involved "improper payments," auditors wrote.

State agencies recouped about $115,000 so far, and auditors suggested that the agencies look into the other 303 names for similar problems.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-hs-medicaid-audit-20111207,0,4510574.story