Idaho Audit Shows ‘Absent’ Parents Not ‘Forced to Repay’ Birth Costs Covered By Medicaid

"Absent" parents are not being "forced to repay" birth costs to Idaho's Medicaid program because officials are "not going after them," the AP/Spokane Spokesman-Review reports. According to a state audit released Oct. 23, "virtually no court orders" have been issued by the state's child support program to recover the birth costs or "other Medicaid expenses" from absent parents since July 1999. The auditors estimate that the state Medicaid program paid more than $10 million in birth costs between "mid-1999 and mid-2000," a "substantial" portion of which "could be recovered." Representatives from the state's Health and Welfare Department said a system to recover the Medicaid funds "should be operating by next year" (AP/Spokane Spokesman-Review, 10/24). For further information on state health policy in Idaho, visit State Health Facts Online.