Oklahoma's Medicaid MU payments over by $800K

The Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) has made incorrect Medicaid Meaningful Use incentive payments to healthcare professionals totaling $888,250, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The OIG found that $888,250 was paid to 47 hospital-based professionals after the agency misinterpreted the time frame for determining hospital-based status. OHCA also claimed $127,500 more than it paid because it mistakenly included six duplicate payments in its report to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The data also did not include a $21,250 payment because of data transmission problems to the repository and lack of reconciliation procedures. 

The OIG recommended that the state refund the federal government the $888,250 in overpayments as well as the $127,500 in over-reported payments, ensure that the $21,250 is successfully transmitted and establish procedures to reconcile the CMS report with the National Level Registry.

The OIG has audited seven other state agencies and found incorrect Medicaid EHR incentive payments in Louisiana and Massachusetts in 2014 and in Arkansas and Texas earlier this year.

Access the report.