Review of Pension Costs Claimed for Medicare Reimbursement by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

This final report provides the results of our review of Pension Costs Claimed for Medicare Reimbursement by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi for Fiscal Years 1988 through 1996. We determined that Blue Cross and Blue shield of Mississippi (Mississippi) claimed pension costs that are unallowable for medicare reimbursement. During this period, the allowable Medicare pension costs were $1,642,204. However, Missouri claimed pension costs of $1,776,516 for Medicare reimbursement. As a result, Missouri claimed $134,312 in pension costs that are not allowable. The over claim occurred primarily because Mississippi did not base their claim on separately computed Cost Accounting Standards pension costs for the Medicare segment. We recommended Mississippi revise its Final Administrative Cost Proposals to eliminate the unallowable pension cost.