(The Advertiser/GregHilburn)- U.S. Sen. John Kennedy said he will ask the federal government to claw back money from thousands of Louisiana Medicaid recipients who may be ineligible for the insurance and demand the state account for how much money was “wasted.”
The Louisiana Department of Health sent letters earlier this month to about 37,000 Medicaid recipients informing them they may be removed from the program after a new computer program determined their income exceeded eligibility levels.
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and his Louisiana Department of Health Secretary Rebekah Gee have touted the new technology as a way to root out potential Medicaid fraud.
“The governor and I want to make sure that only those who need Medicaid have Medicaid,” Gee told the Associated Press in its report about the letters. “This system will be much better able to determine who those people are.”
But Kennedy, R-La., said he believes the Edwards administration has dragged its feet in the past in identifying Medicaid misspending.