Carbondale Reporter

The Illinois auditor general’s seventh annual audit of the statewide Covering ALL KIDS health insurance program, released this month, found significant general growth in the program, with additional increases in various categories of beneficiaries.

 

As of June 30, 2008, state law has required an annual review of the Illinois’ KidCare program, which includes Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) populations.

 

“In (fiscal 2015), Illinois’ ALL KIDS program as a whole had a total of 1.8 million enrollees and HFS (Department of Healthcare and Family Services) paid almost $3.2 billion in claims,” the report said. Auditor General Frank Mautino’s office made a distinction between the ALL KIDS program and its subset, the EXPANDED ALL KIDS program, stating that “since the EXPANDED ALL KIDS program is a subset of a much larger ALL KIDS program, many of the recommendations in this report may be relevant to the program as a whole.”

 

In fiscal 2015, total enrollment for the EXPANDED subset as described increased by 25 percent, to 102,182.

 

As of June 30, 2015, the audit revealed that of 66,258 enrollees under the Covering ALL KIDS Health Insurance Act, or 40 percent (26,183), were determined to be undocumented immigrants. The cost for services in fiscal 2015 increased by more than $16 million, or 24 percent, to almost $86.5 million, and undocumented immigrants accounted for 44 percent of all costs for services in fiscal 2015.

 

Based on the results from the program’s most recent previous audit (fiscal 2014), the Auditor General’s Office made a total of five recommendations, two of which applied to HFS and three of which served both the HFS and the Department of Human Services.

 

Both agencies agreed to comply with all recommendations, involving redetermination of eligibility, data reliability, classification of documented immigrants, eligibility documentation and policies regarding orthodontic treatment, the Auditor General's Office reported.