(The Center Square) – Improved oversight of a $1.5 billion contract involving Medicaid and North Carolina’s Health Department is one of two significant findings in a performance audit released Thursday.
The other involves patient safety vulnerabilities, according to the analysis by the office of first-term Republican Auditor Dave Boliek.
The Department of Health and Human Services has a pact with General Dynamics Information Technology. The company provides enrollment functions for the more than 3 million people in the state enrolled.
The report says the Health Department “should improve monitoring of the $1.5 billion GDIT contract so that the state’s interest is protected and to ensure the effective and efficient use of taxpayer funds.”
The audit found providers remaining in the program despite issues with license limitations, suspensions or other credentialing. The report was done in part to see if similar issues found in 2021 by the auditor’s office of Democrat Beth Wood were fixed. Mandy Cohen was leading DHHS in 2021 prior to leaving for an appointment in the Biden administration to lead the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Issues were found with five providers related to practicing medicine while abusing alcohol; inappropriate prescriptions of controlled substances and medications to friends and romantic partners; restrictions on treating women; administering anesthesia without a permit; and prescribing medications following a raid by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“When you go to the doctor, you shouldn’t have to worry about whether your physician is in good standing with the professional medical community,” Boliek said. “Medical suspensions and license limitations are serious prohibitions that need to be treated as such. To ensure Medicaid patients have safety and trust with their physicians, it’s important that the government promptly addresses the Medicaid provider issues found in our latest report.”
North Carolina Medicaid, a release from the Health Department says, “provides affordable health coverage to more than 1 in 4 North Carolinians: more than 3 million children, older adults, people living with disabilities and other working adults.”
North Carolina lawmakers for years were against expanding Medicaid. Two years ago, lawmakers agreed to a deal that enacted a biennial state budget inclusive of universal school choice and made the state 41st to expand Medicaid. North Carolina has gained more than 650,000 enrollments since.
