The Louisiana Department of Health may have improperly spent $13 million in behavioral health provider fees, according to a state auditor's report.
The audit covered payments from 2015 to 2022, nola.com reported March 22. It found about $13 million in payments that may have been improper because of a failure to ensure providers are paid at the right rates, flag potentially improper payments – such as when patients log inpatient and outpatient services on the same day – in addition to other recommended measures.
The auditor said state health officials often don't track whether claims and billing codes submitted by the department's contracted Medicaid behavioral health providers are correct, or if the state is paying what is properly owed, the report said.
Jacques Molaison, the department's chief of staff, agreed with many of the findings in the audit, the report said. The department hired a vendor to help with monitoring billing claims, he said.
Mr. Molaison disagreed with the claim that the state health department fails to track detailed times of service for each claim, the report said.