State Legislators Identify $160M Budget Shortfall in Florida's Medicaid Agency

Pensacola, FL (Newsradio 92.3) -- Representatives from Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration have some questions to answer after $160 million dollars seems to have disappeared from their accounts...

"When I say disappearance of $160 million dollars, I don't mean theft," says District 2 representative Alex Andrade. "I mean...they put it in the wrong bank account, and they spent the money."

Andrade says the agency was only performing financial reconciliations once per year, so the error wasn't caught until time to prepare the next state budget.

"And that's how $160 million dollars can get lost in a year... it might sound surprising to some folks, but this agency... they put it in the wrong bank account, and they spent the money," Andrade told Pensacola's Morning News during a legislative update on Friday morning.

Andrade says the money was supposed to be used to pay federal fines. The state will now have to appropriate another $160 million for those fines.

The AHCA runs the state's $30-billion-dollar Medicaid program.