Medicaid and Runaway Spending

This morning I was obtaining background information on South Carolina’s Office of the State Auditor. On its webpage, at the bottom of the “Mission Statement” tab, the last paragraph notes that the Medicaid Audits Section of the State Auditor’s Office each year audits approximately 100 Medicaid contractors, using funding of over $230 million. As it was just after 5am when I read this, I did a quick and dirty calculation, assuming SC is the average spender, and multiplied this figure by the 50 states. The result of that crude calculation suggested to me that the US might spend $11.5 billion auditing Medicaid contractors in the United States. Don’t quote that number. The actual figure would deviate significantly from this calculation, but the obvious point is that billions of dollars are spent auditing Medicaid contractors in the US. This is mind-boggling and makes you wonder how much is spent just to provide Medicaid in the US. I checked on that. In 2009, total US spending on Medicaid was $366.4 billion. Therefore, $11.5 billion would only be 3.1% of the total spent. That makes it believable, but still mind-boggling. Check out other states

For those interested in learning more about issues concerning healthcare costs facing states, particularly Medicaid. Here is a preview of the type of information you will find; this about SC: “The state's Medicaid program is projected to cost $228 million more than lawmakers budgeted to spend on it this fiscal year. And the shortfall at the state Department of Health and Human Services is just a preview of the budget crisis awaiting the state in July. That is when the $1 billion in federal stimulus cash that's propping up this year's $5 billion spending plan runs out. ...”

If you want to know more about state and federal Medicaid spending, follow this link to Kaiser’s State Health Facts.