Watchdog Cites Lax Oversight of Medicaid Managed Care Spending

A federal budget watchdog raised concerns that the Medicaid agency lacks sufficient guardrails to ensure states’ spending on supplemental payments to providers is appropriate.

A report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office notes the federal approval process lacks sufficient oversight of state-directed payments, which are compensation arrangements where states allocate additional payments to medical providers via a managed care plan in order to meet state-wide health objectives.

The report notes this form of compensation is generally low-stakes for states because the payments are often made through levying taxes on providers rather than by using state general funds.

According to ...