Review of North Dakota's Accounts Receivable System for Medicare Provider Overpayments

Our objective was to determine whether North Dakota reported Medicaid provider overpayments pursuant to Federal regulations. North Dakota did not report all Medicaid provider overpayments pursuant to Federal regulations. Specifically, as of March 31, 2005, it had not reported 132 Medicaid overpayments. The Federal share of the 132 unreported overpayments totaled $684,025. North Dakota did not report overpayments on time because its policies and procedures were insufficient to ensure timely reporting of all overpayments. Specifically, it waited to report provider overpayments until it had (1) collected them from the provider or (2) finalized the cost report settlement.

We recommended that North Dakota return the Federal share of identified Medicaid overpayments totaling $684,025 to the Federal Government and improve its policies and procedures to ensure all overpayments are reported pursuant to Federal requirements. The State agency generally concurred with our findings and recommendations.