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Since the advent of the Medicaid managed care program there has been a lingering question as to when a Medicaid dollar stopped being a Medicaid dollar.

With fee-for-service providers that were paid directly by the Medicaid program, the answer was always clear-cut – each dollar received from the Medicaid program was a Medicaid dollar and therefore it and the provider who received it were subject to the audit authority of the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (“OMIG”).

But what about providers contracted through Medicaid managed care organizations (“MCO”) and not directly enrolled as Medicaid providers? Before Governor Cuomo issued his Executive Budget earlier this month, there was debate as to where the OMIG’s audit authority stopped with arguments on either side of the line.  Many argued that the OMIG’s authority stopped with at the doors of the MCO.  After the money was paid to the MCO it was able to negotiate contracts directly with providers and disburse the funds as it saw fit, with each MCO operating independently of each other.  The other side of the coin was that a dollar spent with the purpose of providing care to a Medicaid recipient established that the dollar was a Medicaid dollar from start to finish, regardless of whether it was passed through a MCO.

With the Executive Budget, however, all confusion and debate will be settled.  Per the proposed language of the Health and Mental Hygiene Article VII Legislation, Social Services Law Section 364-j will be amended to state that “[a]ny payment made pursuant to the state’s managed care program, including payments made by managed long term care plans, shall be deemed a payment by the state’s medical assistance program.”

The Executive Budget goes further, clearly defining the OMIG’s ability to recover overpayments made by a MCO to its contracted providers that were discovered during an OMIG audit or investigation, as well as during an investigation or prosecution by the New York State Office of the Attorney General Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (“MFCU”).  If the OMIG is unable to recover the overpayment, the MCO may be required to act on the OMIG’s behalf to recoup the overpaid funds and repay the State within six months of receiving notice of the overpayment.

The legislation sets January 1, 2018 as the start of the review period and, without any amendments to the budget bill by the Legislature, will go into effect immediately upon the Governor signing the bills into law.  With the OMIG poised to begin these audits, MCO-contracted providers should familiarize themselves with the OMIG’s audit protocols and procedures.

Medicaid providers, both fee-for-service and those contracted with MCO, who are interested in taking a proactive stance in preparing for an OMIG or MFCU audit or investigation, or providers who are already the subject of one are encouraged to contact Farrell Fritz’s Regulatory & Government Relations Practice Group at 518.313.1450 or NYSRGR@FarrellFritz.com to plan your next move.

The New York Court of Appeals decided last week, in Handler v. DiNapoli, that the State Comptroller has the authority to review the billing records of a non-participating provider receiving funds from the State’s primary health benefit plan, even though the payment of state funds is made indirectly.

New York State provides health insurance to its employees, retirees, and their dependents.  The plan at issue, the Empire Plan, is funded by New York State.  United Healthcare Insurance of New York (United) contracts with the State to process and pay claims by Empire Plan beneficiaries.  United processes and pays the claim, and then the State reimburses United and pays it an administrative fee.

When non-participating providers provide a service to Empire Plan members, they charge market rates and bill the patient directly.  United reimburses the patient for 80% of the actual fee or the “customary and reasonable charge” for the service, whichever is lower.  The patient must then pay these funds to the provider  and also pay the remaining 20%.  Non-participating providers have a legal duty to collect co-payments from the patients.

The New York Comptroller sought to examine the billing records of non-participating providers to determine if they had waived Empire Plan member co-payments.  The Court provided an illustration of how failure to collect the co-payment “inflates a claim’s cost and adversely impacts the State’s fisc.”  If a non-participating provider charges $100 for a service, receives $80, and does not collect the $20 co-payment, then the service was provided for $80.  In that case, the State should have only paid $64, and has overpaid by $16.

The providers gave the Comptroller access to their records upon request.  After auditing a random sampling, the Comptroller concluded that the providers had routinely waived the co-payment, extrapolated the sample amount to the universe of claims, and sought recovery of overpayments of $787,000 in one instance and $900,000 in another.  The providers then filed suit, challenging the Comptroller’s authority to audit their records because they did not receive state funds directly, but rather through United.

The Court of Appeals upheld the Comptroller’s authority, stating that the fact that a third party is a conduit for the funds does not change the character of the state funds.  The Court found that limiting the Comptroller’s authority would make its task of auditing state funds impossible; there would be no other way to determine whether providers had required a co-payment.  The Court also noted that the providers certainly knew that the payments were state funds and required the collection of co-payments.

This decision confirms that the Comptroller has wide authority to audit when state funds are at issue, even where the state does not contract with the entity being audited.  Litigants will have to try to fit themselves into some of the areas where the Court states the Comptroller may not act, such as performing the administrative duties of another State agency or overseeing activities that, while financial in nature, have no impact on the state fisc.