Audit cites Medicaid ills

A new audit confirms Illinois has a severe backlog of overdue health care bills, but problems with the Medicaid system go much deeper. Auditor General William Holland found that Illinois ended each of the last three years with an average of $1.5 billion in unpaid bills. He also found the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services did a poor job of handling the bills it did manage to pay. There was no clear system for deciding who got paid first. The state held bills for nearly two months before even starting the process of paying them. Illinois could owe up to $81 million dollars in interest on overdue bills. The department says it will make improvements but defends many of its procedures.