The Oklahoma Senate approved a bill Wednesday requiring annual reviews of SoonerCare enrollees’ eligibility.
Sen. James Leewright says Medicaid enrollment errors are costly.
"In Illinois, they found that 14,148 people were receiving benefits but were actually deceased," Leewright said. "Arkansas, we had 43,000 Medicaid enrollees that weren't even residents of the state."
Opponents say Oklahoma’s enrollment error rate is among the nation’s lowest and the state should boost funding instead of scrounging savings. They also say say House Bill 1270 will cost poor people their health insurance, even if that's not the intent.
Sen. Kay Floyd asked Leewright about a provision of HB1270 allowing the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to hire third-party vendors to help.
"These independent vendors, aren't they paid based on the errors that they find?" Floyd said.
"That is correct," Leewright said.
"So, then, isn't it in their best financial interest to find as many errors as possible?" Floyd said.
"Yes, as it is with the health care authority. I believe it's in their best interest to make sure they're finding all the errors," Leewright said.
Sen. Kevin Matthews also took issue with the fact vendors would be paid out of the money they save the state.
"We're going to incentivize people for kicking folks off of this important program without having any proof that this is a significant problem," Matthews said.
A vendor may also provide information not usually available to the government, like credit activity. Leewright said that would help identify people who claim they make $20,000 a year but say on a car loan application their income is $50,000 or $60,000.
HB1270 passed the Senate 39–5. It returns to the House because it was amended in the Senate.
