This blog is focused on the politics and social news of the 58th District of Illinois (Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Highwood, Highland Park, Deerfield, Northbrook, Riverwoods, Bannockburn and Glencoe) and serves as a discussion group for concerned residents of the District and the State of Illinois who want to change the direction of our broken state government and improve the lives of all Illinoisans.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Illinois Audit Finds State Owes Massive Amounts of Back Medicaid Bills

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - A new audit confirms Illinois has a severe backlog of overdue health care bills, but problems with the Medicaid system go much deeper.

Auditor General William Holland found that Illinois ended each of the last three years with an average of $1.5 billion in unpaid bills.

He also found the Department of Healthcare and Family Services did a poor job of handling the bills it did manage to pay.

There was no clear system for deciding who got paid first. The state held bills for nearly two months before even starting the process of paying them.

Illinois could owe up to $$81 million in interest on overdue bills.

The department says it will make improvements but defends many of its procedures.

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