W.Va. health services contracts spur questions - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

W.Va. health services contracts spur questions

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -

By LAWRENCE MESSINA
Associated Press

West Virginia lawmakers are expressing increasing concerns over a number of multimillion-dollar state contracts related to health and welfare services.

Legislators recently learned that the state agency overseeing Medicaid has spent millions on a consultant, the Delmarva Foundation. The nonprofit group monitors other firms hired to administer part of Medicaid.

Lawmakers question the worth of that monitoring, citing chronic problems with Medicaid services.

Those concerns come on the heels of a legislative audit that criticized the agency's handling of another Medicaid-related contract.

It's supposed to help that program manage hundreds of thousands of claims and records. The contract is among the largest awarded by state government, currently costing $20 million a year. But the agency has struggled to complete the bidding process for the latest version of this contract.

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