The District of Columbia agency charged with transporting Medicaid recipients to doctor’s offices risked millions of dollars when it failed to evaluate the price tag of transportation services and allowed hopeful contractors to base their bids on faulty figures, according to a recently released audit.
The review by the D.C. Inspector General of the Department of Health’s Medical Assistance Administration revealed a pattern of omissions in a program long criticized as one of the most dysfunctional in the District government. The audit of the nonemergency transportation system was the fourth in two years to reveal serious problems with the system.
In this case, the auditor claims to have caught the problem before millions of dollars were wasted.
“We actually got a live one and were able to implement some change,” said Sal Guli, the inspector general’s technical director for audits.
The city is required under Medicaid to provide patients with non-emergency transportation to and from physicians’ offices. Last year the health department opted to outsource the management of the program to an outside “broker.”
But in establishing the criteria for bidders, the administration did not establish accurate patient transportation data, complete a cost analyses or provide a legally required cost-estimate to the Office of Contracting and Procurement, the IG found.
For example, according to the audit, the administration solicited broker bids based on 540,000 annual trips. But in fiscal 2006, the District paid for only 423,482 trips.
After meeting with IG staff last November, health department officials asked bidders to resubmit their proposals based on revised data. The amended submissions, according to the IG, could save the District upward of $27 million over the course of a four-year deal.
“It’s nice to be able to catch something before it happens,” Guli said.
