The Kansas Medicaid Inspector General has issued her first audit report since that oversight office was transferred from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to the Attorney General’s Office. And some aspects are not pretty.
The office was transferred in 2017 after there were no staff in the Inspector General’s Office since 2014, and Sarah Fertig was confirmed as Inspector General earlier this year. An administrative employee monitored a Medicaid-related email account from 2014 until August 2017, but there were over 200 emails directed to the vacant office. Nearly half either alleged fraud, waste, abuse or outright illegal activity related to Medicaid, MediKan or SCHIP — the state children’s health insurance program — or wanted information about how to report suspected fraud.
The report includes five recommendations for future state action:
*KDHE should remove the Officer of Inspector General Fraud and Abuse Complaint form from its website.
*KDHE should also advise the state’s three managed care organizations and their pharmacy benefit managers to update their email contacts.
*KDHE should deactivate the prior email accounts in questions or adjust its account settings to redirect the emails to the correct account.
*KDHE should download and forward unread emails to the correct account from Jan. 9 to when the prior email account is either deactivated or redirected.
*Kansas Department for Children and Families should make sure its fraud investigation team members only use the correct email account for its work.
