OIG Finds County Hospitals Kept $205M Meant for Indiana Nursing Homes
An OIG audit released Tuesday found that $205.2 million in Medicaid supplemental payments intended to boost reimbursement for Indiana nursing facilities was instead recouped by county hospitals, which operate about 97% of nursing facilities in the state. OIG reported that nearly half of Indiana's supplemental payments, $479.8 million total, were recovered by nonstate government-owned entities like county hospitals, including $274.6 million in state-share funds those entities had initially contributed. Indiana received the highest nursing facility supplemental payments nationally in fiscal 2022, about $1.02 billion of $2.36 billion reported nationwide, prompting OIG's audit. The audit also found $12.2 million in federal payments that did not comply with federal and state requirements, due to unreported overpayments, a leap-year calculation error, and an incorrect federal matching rate; OIG recommended Indiana refund that amount and explore ways to increase the share of payments retained by participating nursing facilities.