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Committee advances Medicaid-integrity bill to expand data checks and residency verification
Summary
Senate Bill 130 passed the House committee after members approved amendments allowing broader interagency data crosschecks, outlawing self-attestation of Louisiana residency for initial Medicaid eligibility, and requiring quarterly public reporting of integrity activity.
Senate Bill 130 was reported favorably with amendments after committee debate about how the Louisiana Department of Health should verify Medicaid eligibility. The bill would authorize LDH to expand interagency data crosschecks (for example with vital records, workforce wages, revenue, motor-vehicle records and Social Security Administration information), prohibit use of self-attestation of Louisiana residency for initial eligibility (unless required by federal law), and require the department to publish quarterly reports on investigations, improper-payment amounts and recoveries.
Sponsor Senator Cloud said the bill aims to modernize eligibility verification and reduce improper payments, noting a large number of people on the Medicaid rolls appear not to reside in Louisiana. LDH officials told the committee they already use multiple data sources and have been adding feeds; the department said some checks are new (for example recent Office of Motor Vehicles checks) and full implementation requires programming, staff and sometimes paid data services.
Kim Sullivan, LDH Medicaid director, told the committee the department has drafted rules and performs data exchanges with the Louisiana Workforce Commission, Department of Revenue and other agencies; some sources are routine and free, while private vendors (for example credit-reporting services) have per-check fees. David Matlock (DCFS) and other witnesses emphasized the need to resource any expansion, and several members asked for more detail on churn—how many households are removed then reenrolled—and on safeguards so eligible people are not wrongfully terminated.
The committee adopted a committee-originated amendment clarifying that LDH shall not accept self-attestation of Louisiana residency for initial eligibility and renewals (unless federal law requires otherwise). Representative Butler moved the measure favorably; the committee recorded no objections. Members asked LDH to provide further data on churn rates, the marketplace-transfer population, and the department’s data-source inventory to inform fiscal estimates and oversight.
