Iowa Republicans choose not to look for overspending on Medicaid prescriptions
The Iowa Department of Human Services will not audit a practice that could be inflating costs for Medicaid prescription drug payments by millions of dollars a year.
State Representative John Forbes raised concerns after finding discrepancies on bills for some prescriptions his Urbandale pharmacy filled for patients served by Amerigroup, one of Iowa’s Medicaid managed-care providers. Earlier this month, House members unanimously approved Forbes’ amendment to the health and human services budget, instructing DHS to “audit all prescription drug benefit claims managed by a pharmacy benefit manager under the Medicaid program.”
However, House and Senate Republicans dropped that section from the final version of House File 766.
State Senator Mark Costello, who floor managed the health and human services budget in the upper chamber, claimed Iowa’s Medicaid director Michael Randol and an Amerigroup representative had told him the audit was unnecessary.
Read more: https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2019/04/28/iowa-republicans-choose-not-to-look-for-overspending-on-medicaid-prescriptions/