Ineligible recipients received millions in Virginia Medicaid benefits

Virginia’s Medicaid program has a backlog of applications for eligibility that has cost the state and federal governments up to $38 million in benefits to ineligible recipients, according to a new report that identifies gaps in the $8 billion system.

A new study documents an overburdened social services system — supervised by the state but administered locally — that has allowed people to re-enroll for benefits for which they are no longer eligible at an estimated cost of $21 million to $38 million in the 2014 fiscal year.

Republicans in the House of Delegates pounced quickly on the report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission as evidence of a broken Medicaid system, but Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration said the legislature has thwarted attempts to fix some of the problems identified in the study.

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