This browser does not support the Video element.
County health benefits boondoggle
County health benefits boondoggle
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Milwaukee County taxpayers have been picking up the insurance tab of hundreds of people who didn't deserve to have it. It's a million dollar mistake, and nobody seems to know how long it's been happening.
"The good news is this is something that`s not going to happen in the future. The bad news is this is something we should have caught a long time ago," Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele said.
It wasn't caught until last year: County employees getting divorced, ex-husbands and wives still getting County health insurance. Children aging out of the system, but still collecting benefits, to the tune of $1.5 million a year.
"We were paying for coverage for over 700 people who are not eligible and by we I mean you, and the taxpayers of the County," Abele said.
The County paid $100,000 to an outside company just to determine who was getting health care benefits who didn't deserve them. Going forward there is still a discussion about whether any of that money will be paid back.
"When you do an audit of everyone you`re covering and over 7% of the people you`ve been covering turn out not to be eligible than you`re clearly not paying close enough attention," Abele said.
"Well I think that there are safeguards in place now. We`re still conducting ongoing reviews and we want to make sure it doesn`t happen again in the future," Milwaukee County Board Chairman Marina Dimitrijevic said.
New hires now have to be audited periodically, and the County has adopted a computerized system for tracking birthdays to make sure kids who age out of the system are cut off. The County will still rely on employees to self-report when they get a divorce, but a marriage audit is likely in 2015 to make sure records are current and accurate.
The County says at this point, they don't think employees were purposefully trying to defraud the system, but they are keeping their legal options open. This is the first time the County has ever done an audit like this. They hope it will discourage fraud and abuse going forward.