The full extent of U.S. spending on Medicaid, the $459 billion state-federal health insurance program for the poor, is unclear because of mismatches between government databases, auditors reported. A $43 billion gap showed up in a comparison of 2009 spending data from the states, which run Medicaid, and the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which pays for more than half the program, according to a report released today by the Government Accountability Office. In a separate report, the inspector general for the U.S. Health and Human Services department said the agency hadn't audited about $4 billion in payments to doctors and hospitals for installations of electronic record systems.
