I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
New Mexico built its current state budget on the assumption that Congress would extend stimulus funding for Medicaid through the end of the fiscal year, next June. Right now the extra funding ends Dec. 31, 2010.
Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, told The Independent he’s already preparing for the possibility that Congress, even if it acts, won’t cover the full $160 million the state budgeted in anticipation of the federal dollars.
But in Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue has already ordered leaner state agencies to cut another 4 percent in spending starting next month because the state’s new budget relies on federal stimulus dollars that might not come, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting.
Four months after Gov. Bill Richardson seemingly set in motion a change in the state’s four-year $1 billion behavioral health contract New Mexico appears to be leaning toward making no change. Providers and others across the state have told state officials in a series of recent public hearings that a transition would create havoc for them and the clients they serve.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)’s Medicaid Integrity Group intends to investigate allegations the Human Services Department (HSD) hindered Medicaid fraud and elder abuse investigations by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud & Elder Abuse Division, CMS spokeswoman Mary Kahn told The Independent.
“We plan on conducting an inquiry into this situation with the state Medicaid agency,” Kahn said.
HSD and the state Health Department administer New Mexico’s $1 billion Medicaid program.
The Medicaid Fraud Division reported that HSD and the Health Department had withheld, “filtered” and “sanitized” information and documents requested by investigators, hindering numerous investigations. The allegations were made in the Fraud Division’s 2009 annual report to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But the Inspector General’s office alerted the Medicaid Integrity Group to the 2009 allegations only last week, Kahn said, following inquiries by The Independent.
Similar allegations were also reported in the Fraud Division’s 2008 annual report, The Independent has confirmed.
“We have not heard from the CMS Medicaid Integrity Group, but of course if they contact us we will work with them to address any questions they may have,” HSD Spokeswoman Betina Gonzales McCracken said Monday.
HSD was “surprised by the allegations,” McCracken told The Independent last month.
But the Medicaid Integrity Group was “already aware of similar allegations related to the state’s relationship with its Medicaid Fraud (Division)” in 2008, Kahn said.
Following its May 2008 review of the state’s Medicaid program, the federal Medicaid Integrity Group ordered HSD to prepare a plan to correct violations of several federal regulations, according to a report obtained by The Independent.
“The State is not in compliance with federal regulations related to required disclosure and reporting requirements,” the report states. Among the violations described in the report was HSD’s failure to report fraud to the state Medicaid Fraud Division, “limiting the ability of the (Division) to prosecute fraud cases.”
The report also faulted HSD for failures to screen Medicaid providers for criminal convictions or to verify patients actually received the care for which Medicaid was billed by health care providers.
The HSD is required to track all cases of suspected Medicaid fraud and abuse, but was not doing so at the time of the 2008 review, the report states.
“HSD has implemented the Corrective Action Plan,” McCracken said Monday.
The concerns raised by the Medicaid Integrity Group’s 2008 review were addressed in the Plan and were different from subsequent allegations raised in the Medicaid Fraud Division’s 2009 report, McCracken said.
“We were unaware there were any further issues that needed to be addressed,” she said. “In light of the (Medicaid Fraud Division) report, we will work with the AGs office to address any issues that might still exist.”
On Monday, the state Senate voted to override Governor Bill Richardson’s pocket veto last year of a bill that would require state agencies to share Medicaid and other program data with the Legislative Finance Committee.
As soon as OptumHealth took over New Mexico’s behavioral health system, its claims management system failed under the crush of real-world use.
Signs are everywhere that the economic slump is affecting those who have the least resources.
And here’s another: applications for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) – the government program once known as welfare – has jumped in New Mexico. More …
