MEDI-CAL CALLED WASTEFUL\State controller urges overhaul.Byline: Ann Bancroft For the actress, see . Ann Bancroft (born 29 September 1955 in Mendota Heights, Minnesota) is a United States author, teacher, and adventurer. She was the first woman to successfully finish a number of arduous expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. California's $16.8 billion Medi-Cal program could save taxpayers nearly a half-billion dollars this year by cracking down on inefficiencies and fraud, a state controller's audit says. State health officials bristled bris·tle n. 1. A stiff hair. 2. A stiff hairlike structure: the bristles of a wire brush. v. bris·tled, bris·tling, bris·tles v.intr. at the audit, which was released Monday, calling its conclusions flawed and lacking in perspective. The six-month audit ordered by Controller Kathleen Connell Kathleen Connell was the California State Controller from 1995 until 2003. She is currently President of the Connell Group, an investment advisory firm located in Washington, D.C. Dr. identified $227 million in annual savings and $230 million in one-time savings that Connell said could be realized by more efficient collection of drug rebates, better fraud detection methods and other efficiencies. "Cheating the state is about as easy as going on a shopping spree with someone else's credit card, except there's no credit limit and taxpayers end up paying the bill," Connell said. She was referring to a phony billing scam in which the state paid $206,000 to a person illegally using a Medi-Cal provider number. Connell, a Democrat, is viewed as a likely contender for the 1998 Democratic gubernatorial gu·ber·na·to·ri·al adj. Of or relating to a governor. [From Latin gubern nomination. "The controller's inflated audit savings are surpassed only by her inflated rhetoric," retorted State Health Director Kim Belshe, an appointee APPOINTEE. A person who is appointed or selected for a particular purpose; as the appointee under a power, is the person who is to receive the benefit of the trust or power. of Republican Gov. Pete Wilson For others named Pete Wilson, see . Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American Republican politician from California. Wilson served as the thirty-sixth Governor of California (1991–1999), the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that . She said the audit failed to back up Connell's inference of widespread fraud. Belshe complained that while Connell's staff spent more than six months poring over Medi-Cal practices of the past five years, her department was given only two days to respond to the audit. She said the savings identified in the audit amount to "a tiny fraction" of the $78 billion Medi-Cal budget over the time studied by auditors. Among Connell's recommendations: The department should be more aggressive in billing, tracking and collecting rebates due the state from drug manufacturers. Belshe acknowledged the program's tracking system is outdated. The state should negotiate better prices for prescription drugs. Gov. Wilson's budget for 1996-97 proposes cutting the amount paid to drug providers. Medi-Cal should cut a dollar from the amount paid to pharmacists for dispensing each Medi-Cal prescription. The governor's budget proposes charging Medi-Cal recipients a dollar for drug prescriptions instead. |
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