Government & Corporate Incompetence: Idaho punishes California’s Molina for screwing up Medicaid payments, some health care providers went out of business

Idaho is still trying to get back $10 million in overpayments, that Molina screwed up when they took over Idaho’s Medicaid payment system in 2010.

Idaho officials say they turned over the payment system to California based Molina Medicaid Solutions, to comply with Federal regulations.

The move cost taxpayers big time, and it shut down a few health care providers.

What happened was that at the beginning of Molina’s take over providers weren’t getting paid, for as long as two months!  Many providers came close to bankruptcy, and a few went out of business.

The state made emergency payments, then Molina went and finally responded by paying the original claims.  The result was double payments!

The state of Idaho is punishing Molina by reducing the amount of money they were originally to be paid.  Also, Idaho is trying to recoup the money from the double payments.

Molina has made improvements to their customer service, but as of this year they still have 10,000 claims pending, with just under 5% being more than a month old.  One northern Idaho mental health provider says her payment claims still get delayed for no reason.