Improvements Needed to Better Oversee Payment Risks
GAO July 26, 2018
What GAO Found
Under Medicaid managed care, managed care organizations (MCO) receive a periodic payment per beneficiary in order to provide health care services. Managed care has the potential to help states reduce Medicaid program costs and better manage the use of health care services. However, managed care payments also have the potential to create program integrity risks. GAO identified six types of payment risks associated with managed care, including
four related to payments that state Medicaid agencies make to MCOs, and two related to payments that MCOs make to providers. Of the six payment risks GAO identified, state stakeholders responsible for ensuring Medicaid program integrity more often cited the following two as having a higher level of risk:
(1)...