State using $12M in frozen funds as leverage in talks with behavioral health care providers [View all]

State officials are using some $12 million that New Mexico owes to at least 10 behavioral health care providers as leverage to settle the state’s allegations that the providers overbilled Medicaid, said a person who attended confidential mediation sessions last week.

The New Mexico Human Services Department froze the $12 million in treatment payments in June 2013, after officials said an audit by a Boston company found credible allegations that the providers defrauded Medicaid.

The Attorney General’s Office has since cleared all of the firms of any criminal wrongdoing.

But many remain out of business, and they are fighting the state’s allegations that they owe New Mexico money for Medicaid overpayments allegedly uncovered in the 2013 Public Consulting Group audit.

Read more: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/health_and_science/state-using-m-in-frozen-funds-as-leverage-in-talks/article_e3f716ba-f73b-55df-886c-b4fcc0aaa005.html