Department of Health and Human Services

Office of Inspector General -- AUDIT

Complete Text of Report is available in PDF format (610 kb). Copies can also be obtained by contacting the Office of Public Affairs at 202-619-1343.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Our objective was to determine whether the prescription drug claims for which New York State received Federal reimbursement at the enhanced 90-percent rate of Federal financial participation (FFP) qualified as family planning services. 

New York State improperly received Federal reimbursement at the enhanced 90-percent rate of FFP for 592,165 prescription drug claims that did not qualify as family planning services.  As a result, the State improperly received $6,132,366 in Federal Medicaid funds.  This amount represents the difference between the enhanced 90-percent rate and the applicable 50-percent or 52.95-percent Federal medical assistance percentage. 

We recommended that the State (1) refund $6,132,366 to the Federal Government; (2) review all National Drug Codes (NDC) presently coded as family planning in the Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) to verify that they are related to family planning; (3) periodically review all NDCs to ensure that they are appropriately coded in the MMIS; and (4) determine the amount of Federal Medicaid funds improperly reimbursed at the 90-percent rate for non-family-planning NDCs, both prior and subsequent to our audit period, and refund that amount to the Federal Government.  New York State generally concurred with our recommendations.