Senators have launched an inquiry into companies paid billions in taxpayer dollars to build eligibility systems for Medicaid, expressing concern that error-riddled technology and looming work requirements “will cause Americans to lose Medicaid coverage to this bureaucratic maze.”
The letters, dated Oct. 10, were sent to four companies and follow a KFF Health News investigation that exposed widespread issues in states using Deloitte-run systems to assess Medicaid eligibility for millions of people. Failures have resulted in the erroneous loss of health coverage and other vital safety-net benefits for low-income people. Malfunctions in those systems can cost millions and take years to fix.
As most states prepare to institute work requirements mandated by the tax and domestic spending law President Donald Trump signed in July, senators wrote it is each company’s responsibility to build functioning systems, “rather than to prioritize their bottom line.”
Democratic senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sent the letters to several companies the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services identified as eligibility system contractors: Deloitte, GDIT, Gainwell Technologies, and Conduent.
“They’re essentially health care middlemen that are in the business of red tape, and they profit when Americans don’t get health care,” Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Medicaid, said in an interview.
“They’ve got a history of poor performance when it comes to determining eligibility or in helping Americans enroll in Medicaid,” Wyden said. “Without stronger oversight and real accountability, these contractors are just going to get a jumbo windfall for creating systems that …