New York Audit Uncovers Overpayment

A recent audit of government units in Albany, New York and Albany County showed that over seven hundred thousands dollars was being paid out by nine local governments to retirees or their dependents even though they were dead. At the time of the release of the report the local governments reported that they had either received restitution or were in the process of receiving it from the insurance carriers for the overpayments.

This overpayment of health insurance was found during an audit that looked into the health insurance payment procedures of twenty local governments. Seventy-five percent of these overpayments have been recovered thus far and at least four governments are still in the process of recovering their funds.

The audit also found that nineteen of the twenty municipalities needed to improve both the accuracy and appropriateness of their payments when it comes to retirees and their spouses. It was recommended that the local government agencies come up with new internal controls to monitor the status of the individuals receiving payments.

The entire audit looked in the government agencies of twenty municipalities and compared the Social Security Record of 18,954 retirees and 8,337 spouses who receive regular health insurance benefits in these areas. The audit was conducted between the first of January 2005 and the thirtieth of June 2006.