ALBANY — Sometimes it pays to be dead — especially when the state keeps on paying and paying.
The state Medicaid program coughed up $1.9 million in benefits to 532 dead people between March 2006 and February 2011, auditors found.
One person got $25,729 a year for nearly seven years after death, from October 2004 to February 2011 — a span of four governors — according to an audit by New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
In another case, Medicaid — the state- and locally administered health-care plan for the poor — paid $10,700 for a person who hadn’t even lived in the United States for nearly two years.
The audit, released yesterday, identified nearly 260,000 improper payments worth about $26.8 million by Medicaid to cover federal Medicare premiums, deductibles and co-insurance payments for the poor elderly under a state “buy-in” program.
Auditors blamed insufficient oversight by the state Health Department and poor practices by local social-service districts, which determine eligibility for the $1-billion-a-year “buy-in” program in New York.
DiNapoli credited the state Health Department for developing a new system to help localities catch the improper payments — though he said some local officials were unaware of it.