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Health Department: annual cost surveys, 15% random audits; providers and lawmakers raise concern
Summary
Medicaid administrator Sasha O'Connell said the department would move to annual cost surveys and audit a 15% sample at random; legislators and a public commenter raised worries about workload, provider capacity, and the $1.7 million implementation estimate.
Sasha O'Connell, Medicaid administrator and deputy director at the Department of Health and Welfare, told the committee the department expects to follow a process similar to current cost surveys but perform them annually and audit a share of responses to ensure accuracy. “The goal of having a share of those responses to be audited would be to just ensure that all of the information that's being shared is accurate,” O'Connell said, and she described implementing audits at random.
Committee members questioned how the department arrived at a $1.7 million implementation figure and whether existing third‑party auditors would be retained. O'Connell said the department used estimates from its current auditor, Myers and Stauffer, in developing the fiscal note and that the state procurement process could require reprocurement in the future. Legislators also raised concerns that rate reductions could affect providers differently and pressed for clarity on alternatives if providers could not continue operations under new rates.
