Mississippi Claimed Millions in Unallowable School-Based Medicaid Administrative Costs 

The Mississippi Division of Medicaid (State agency) claimed school-based Medicaid administrative costs that were not in accordance with Federal requirements. The State agency used statistically invalid random moment sampling (RMS) in allocating costs to Medicaid, and it did not maintain adequate support to validate its sample results and related extrapolations. In addition, it claimed these costs without promptly submitting to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Cost Allocation (DCA), for review its cost allocation plan (CAP) amendments describing its random moment time study (RMTS) methodologies. Instead, the State agency claimed costs based on either of two implementation plans describing different RMTS methodologies. As a result, the almost $42.4 million (more than $21.1 million Federal financial participation) that the State agency claimed in school-based Medicaid administrative costs for Federal fiscal years 2010 through 2012 was unallowable.