ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A recently released legislative audit is highly critical of Maryland's Medical Care Programs Administration (MCPA) tasked with handling State-run government entitlements like Medicaid.
The audit spanned from April 2022 to March 2025, finding six of eight repeat violations documented in a November 2023 review.
WMAR reported on the initial findings back in April of 2025.
"Based on the results of our current audit, we have concluded that MCPA’s accountability and compliance level remains unsatisfactory," the latest report, issued on May 20, states
Among the many red flags revealed, MCPA reportedly failed to properly determine Medicaid Eligibility.
As result, auditors believe ineligible applicants received millions in taxpayer funded benefits.
"For example, MCPA paid approximately $2.3 million in calendar year 2024 for 152 recipients for whom the review disclosed did not have required support of income and citizenship eligibility or were ineligible based on the documentation provided."
In July of 2025 Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown sued the Trump Administration, over attempts to access Medicaid recipient information to verify that only lawful residents were receiving medicaid benefits.
A California judge ultimately ruled the government was allowed to assess basic information about Medicaid participants to identify people believed to be unlawfully in the country.
Back to the audit, it also highlighted how MCPA had difficulty identifying, preventing, and recovering millions in Medicaid payments to people who were either dead or incarcerated.
"The review identified $6.4 million in payments for 2,397 recipients who were incarcerated at the time of service including 1,042 incarcerated individuals that were also identified during our prior audit."
"Our match identified 18,086 claims totaling $2.8 million (associated with 4,510 recipients) for services after the recipient’s reported date of death. At our request, MCPA investigated 35 of these recipients and determined that 30 recipients with claims totaling $458,000 were deceased prior to the medical service represented by the claims."
As of December of 2025, MCPA told auditors it had recovered $178,000 of those wrongful payouts.
Additionally, the audit accused MCPA of not ensuring thousands of recipients age 65-years and older applied for Medicare, rather than Medicaid, potentially costing taxpayers nearly $150 million.
In response to the audit, Maryland Health Secretary Meena Seshamani expressed concerns with its "methodology."
"The Department is concerned that the report does not consistently account for corrective actions already implemented prior to report issuance or provide sufficient transparency regarding how progress toward remediation is evaluated and reflected in final audit determinations," Seshamani wrote.
Specifically, however, Seshamani admitted it was "factually accurate" to say the administration did not correctly handle Medicaid eligibility issues in a timely manner. She also agreed with the premise about applicants 65 and older possibly receiving Medicaid benefits when they should've been under Medicare instead.
As for dead and incarcerated people being on Medicaid, Seshamani said she "partially agreed" with the audit's findings.
"MCPA is currently reviewing approximately $2.8 million in potentially improper claims payments, representing 18,086 claims for 4,510 individuals, for services paid after the recipients’ dates of death," said Seshamani. "The agency will complete its review by December 31, 2026, and will pursue recovery of any payments determined to be improper."
When it comes to the incarcerated aspect, below is what Seshamani claims the administration found during a follow-up investigation.
Maryland House Republicans pounced on the audit results.
“It looks like we are entering another season of terrible audits,” said House Minority Leader Jason Buckel. “Maryland taxpayers are being dealt a pattern of repeated failures across multiple agencies, which has become impossible to ignore.”
The full audit can be read below.
