NJ Spotlight published the following article on 4/03/2014. To read the full article, click here.

Federal Audit Says NJ Hospitals Were Overpaid $44M for Medicaid Services

Andrew Kitchenman | April 3, 2014

A federal audit has found that four New Jersey hospitals received $44 million in Medicaid reimbursements that they were ineligible for, and the feds have asked the state to reimburse the government for its half of the payments.

The audit found that the hospitals received the extra payments from the Medicaid program for services they provided to Medicaid recipients and other low-income residents. The audit was conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and examined payments based on hospital spending from July 2006 to June 2007.

State officials dispute the results, saying that their own, more accurate calculation shows that payments to three of the four hospitals weren’t out of line and that the payment overage to the fourth hospital was $634,000.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which made the payments, will consider the state’s objections during the next phase of the audit.

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