TAXPAYERS BEWARE

Thomas F. O'Mara

February 23, 2015

A mid-January report from the state comptroller’s office found that the state Department of Health (DOH) wrongly paid more than 29,000 pharmacy claims, worth nearly $1 million, for thousands of Medicaid recipients already covered by managed care plans.

And just last week, a second comptroller’s report found that the DOH failed to collect an estimated $120 million in available rebates from prescription drug makers.

These are the findings that drive state taxpayers crazy.

For more than a decade, various reports have highlighted wasteful Medicaid spending. Time and again, New York’s system has been characterized as one of the nation's most expensive and wasteful, continually plagued by rip-offs and scams.

Ten years ago, Medicaid spending was roughly $42 billion annually. Now, the cost is about to increase to $60 a year.