Feds: NY overstated enrollees to improperly get $150 for Obamacare exchange

New York improperly used as much as $150 million in grants to set up its insurance exchange under President Barack Obama‘s health care law and help people enroll for coverage, according to a federal audit released Tuesday.

The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services said in the report provided to The Associated Press that the state used inflated population figures to claim funding, effectively saying every New Yorker would benefit from coverage through the exchange.

The office has recommended requiring the state to return the money or work out the proper amounts with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The state disputes the findings.

At issue is part of the $571 million the federal government gave New York in grants from 2010 through 2014 to get the exchange up and running, enroll uninsured people in “qualified health plans” and encourage participation in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

The auditors looked at about $222 million of that money for the period from August 2011 through March 2014 and determined the state had vastly overstated the number of expected participants in the plan by using a formula that assumed the entire state population of nearly 20 million would be eligible.

Read the full story at the Associated Press: APNewsBreak: Feds: NY was overpaid for health exchange setup | News & Observer