New Audit Finds Huge MNsure Overpayments

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A new state audit projects Minnesota spent at least $115 million in estimated overpayments in a five-month period last year for people who got incorrect eligibility determinations from the MNsure system.

The Star Tribune reports the projected tab for overpayments related to the state health insurance exchange comes in a new report by Legislative Auditor James Nobles. The report found state officials failed to make sure people met eligibility requirements when enrolling through MNsure in the Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare programs.

According to the report, the projected cost to the state was between $115 million and $271 million.

The audit was a follow-up to a 2014 report by Nobles on problems determining eligibility by the state Department of Human Services.

A leading Republican in the state Senator lashed out at the latest report involving the troubled online exchange.  Assistant Minority Leader Michelle Benson also says nine of eleven prior negative findings from the 2014 audit have not been resolved yet, which could lead to “ potentially hundreds of millions of wasted taxpayer dollars.”

Benson added:  "MNsure has two functions: eligibility and enrollment. We continue to hear about Minnesotans struggling to be enrolled through MNsure. Now we are seeing they have failed at the second part of their mission, eligibility.”

Benson went on to say more tax money will be wasted “until there is accountability for these ongoing failures. Citizens who need assistance and taxpayers who provide that assistance have both been failed by MNsure.”