Gross Releases Statement Regarding Medicaid ABD Audit

State Representative Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester) issued the following statement in response to the Auditor of State's interim review of Ohio Medicaid's Aged, Blind, and Disabled (ABD) benefits program:

“Thank you to Auditor Faber for this review and thank you to the General Assembly for requiring and funding it in House Bill 96. A program this large is hard to manage. But once problems are found, we have a duty to fix them.

Medicaid should serve older adults, people who are blind or disabled, and others who cannot pay for care on their own. When benefits go to people who are ineligible or deceased, that help is taken from someone still waiting. The Auditor’s ABD review shows this is happening. Eligible Ohioans deserve protection. Taxpayers deserve a program that follows the law.

Ohio does not have to wait. Several of these findings can be remedied now under current law. Those fixes that require statutory, funding, or systemic change should be included in our state’s next operating budget.

1. Act when someone has died. Match death records, end coverage, and recover payments that no longer serve a living person. That is respectful to families and fair to people still in need and we can start now.
2. Verify resources. Check assets on time. Do not rely on automatic SSI renewals. Make exemption rules clear. Public aid should go to people who meet the law’s limits. Begin with current tools in lame duck.
3. Fix the eligibility process. Replace outdated applications. Repair broken renewals. Stop the flood of unprioritized alerts. Train county staff. People who qualify should not wait because the system does not work. Process and training can start now. Larger system upgrades belong in the next budget.
4. Finish the review and publish a plan. Complete testing of the remaining ABD population. Issue a public plan with deadlines so eligible people stay covered, ineligible cases come off, and overpayments are recovered. The review can proceed now. If the plan needs new authority or multi-year funding, include it in the next budget.

Compassion means helping people who qualify. Conserving public dollars means making sure the rules are followed. Both require that we start now and finish the rest in the next budget.”