US Dept. of Health & Human Services - Office of the Inspector General's Quarterly Report
PP. 11-13 - School Health Services (under IDEA, for kids w/IEP's) -

Summary of overpayments for school "services" allegedly provided, and uncovered via OIG audits:
Illinois - $6.1 million
Iowa - $640,000
New York - $172.6 million
Rhode Island - $1.2

The OIG notes that most involved in adequate State supervision of districts' Medicaid claiming. OIG estimated that New York improperly claimed $172.6 million in Federal Medicaid funds for speech services that did not meet Federal and State requirements. Many of the services claimed lacked a referral by an appropriate medical professional or were not provided by orunder the direction of a qualified speech-language pathologist. In the three other States, Federal overpayments totalled an estimated $7.9 million. These unallowable claims generally occurred because States did not provide sufficient guidance to and oversight of local education agencies. OIG recommended that the States refund the overpayments to the Federal Government. (p.III)

The NY OIG audit resulted from a whistle blower filing a Federal False Claims Act suit. This NYS Medicaid audit is the first in a series of 6 re NYS districts' Medicaid claims. The NY Times recently had an article (probably from a meeting the reporter had with Senator Schumer) stating that the NYC Dept. of Ed., which was not included in the audit listed above, filed wrongful reimbursement claims resulting in overpayments of approximately $330 million dollars.

As they say, a million here, a million there - soon you're talking about real money.

Dee Alpert, Publisher, The Special Education Muckraker