Three Senate Democrats on Oct. 20 urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to set mandatory standards for the companies that build and run state Medicaid eligibility systems. Their interim report on Medicaid contractors calls for minimum financial penalties when system errors wrongly drop enrollees, quarterly disclosure of error rates and public release of state contracts.
Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Raphael Warnock of Georgia released the findings a year after opening an inquiry into Deloitte, Conduent, Gainwell Technologies, General Dynamics Information Technology and Maximus. With Republicans controlling Congress and the White House, the proposals face long odds, but the report adds pressure on CMS before major changes take effect.
