KSTP-TV reports the final audit confirms what Minnesota Nurses have long argued-that the healthcare system in the state is need of greater transparency and some of Minnesota’s HMOs owe the taxpayers a refund.
“When taxpayer dollars for patient care are so scarce,” said MNA President Linda Hamilton, “it’s unconscionable that even one penny could be wasted when it could’ve gone to treat somebody’s mother or grandmother. Instead it’s padding somebody’s bank account somewhere.”
An independent auditor, the Segal Company, reveals in a report issued March 31 the government overpaid the four insurance companies that run the state’s Medicaid program by $207 million. They say the amount owed is “concerning,” and they question the length of time HMOs were overpaid. From 2003 to 2011, HMOs were able to run even double-digit profits on Medicaid programs and pocket millions of dollars into their own “reserve” accounts that were many times over what’s considered the minimum.
MNA President Linda Hamilton told KSTP-TV in 2010 that it’s a “disgusting” show of how taxpayer dollars can be used compared to how it could’ve been utilized to care for patients. The reason behind this is the industry’s lobbying of the state of Minnesota to avoid transparency, battle back against public reporting, and to remove caps on how much they can collect to manage public programs.
Link to KSTP-TV story: http://kstp.com/news/stories/S2982096.shtml?cat=127
More background on the HMO overpayments story: