Maryland officials for the last seven years have used inmates to process Social Security numbers and other personal information from low-income residents receiving medical benefits, a state audit revealed. And prisoners with a history of fraud or theft from were not restricted from recording the sensitive data until July.
The Medical Care Programs Administration of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which spent about $6.8 billion on 881,000 Marylanders last fiscal year, relied largely on prisoners to handle Medicaid claims. While most requests are submitted electronically, roughly 900,000 paper claims totaling $265 million, for example, were handled during a recent 11-month period, according to the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits.
