LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – State Sen. Roger Victory (R-Hudsonville) has requested the Office of the Auditor General review Medicaid spending in Michigan.

Victory stated in a press release that Medicaid spending has grown at an unsustainable rate and continues to have issues like fraudulent claims and improper payments, which ultimately hurt beneficiaries.

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“Every dollar in Medicaid must benefit those whom the program is intended to serve,” said Victory. “I look forward to hearing from the Office of the Auditor General as I work to ensure we are getting to the core of waste, fraud and abuse in this system.”

The Auditor General has looked into Medicaid previously. For example, in 2019, it released a report on Medicaid payments to nursing facilities for long-term care. That report estimated that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services had allowed $32 million in reimbursements over a three-year period for “obviously unallowable” expenses that the audit identified and was able to recover from the nursing facilities.

Michigan News Source recently reported that the number of people on Medicaid in Michigan jumped 45% from 2017 to 2023 and cost has increased nearly $6 billion during that six-year span.

The number of enrollees in Michigan has jumped from 2.11 million in 2017 to 3.07 million in 2023. The cost of the program has jumped from $17.3 billion to $23.7 billion during those six years. The federal government covered 75% of that $23.7 billion in 2023.