More than 80,000 Minnesotans were enrolled in public health programs for which they were ineligible last year, costing taxpayers nearly $200 million, reports Twin Cities Pioneer Press.
The office of the legislative auditor took a random sample of 103 people enrolled in Medicaid and 54 people enrolled in MinnesotaCare between January and March of 2015. The sample represents about 270,000 people out of more than 1 million receiving public assistance in the state.
Of the sample, auditors found 38 percent were not eligible for their public assistance program, reports Pioneer Press. Extrapolating the sample across the 270,000-person population, auditors estimated between 57,000 and 108,000 individuals received Medicaid or MinnesotaCare benefits who shouldn't have been enrolled at all.
Auditors blamed the errors on software glitches in the MNsure system, the article reports.
The audit findings apply only to a specific time period and population, deputy legislative auditor Cecile Ferkul told Pioneer Press, and said the same error rate should not be applied to the rest of Minnesota's public programs over the full calendar year.
While Department of Human Services commissioner Emily Piper told Pioneer Press the 38 percent error rate was "overstated", she conceded the audit revealed serious problems.
"Accurate eligibility determinations are a basic function that we must get right to ensure the integrity of our public healthcare programs," Ms. Piper said in a letter to the press.
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