State commissions Medicaid audit - KTTC Rochester, Austin, Mason City News, Weather and Sports

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- The Minnesota Department of Human Services has commissioned an independent audit of the rates the state Medicaid program paid to private health maintenance organizations.

The rate-setting process is already under scrutiny by federal investigators over questions about whether state officials have been manipulating the process to receive more federal funds.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson says the analysis will review Minnesota's Medicaid payments to third-party managed care companies for fiscal 2003 to 2011. Jesson says the review will determine whether the state's payments to the contractors were higher than the amounts allowable under state and federal law.

Medicaid is jointly funded by the state and federal governments and is a health insurance program for low-income people and those with disabilities.