Indiana says it paid out nearly $200 million it shouldn’t have through its Medicaid attendant care program, and now the fight is on over what to do about it.
The Family and Social Services Administration released the audit Thursday. It covers 2022 through early 2025, and the findings are ugly: missing background checks, sloppy billing, missing documentation. Some providers failed every single claim reviewed.
Gov. Mike Braun and FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob called it an accountability failure and promised to claw the money back.
What got FSSA’s attention in the first place: attendant care spending shot up more than $150 million in a single year. Patient need didn’t.
The headline numbers:
- Nearly every reviewed claim had multiple violations
- Some providers hit error rates near or at 100%
- Failed background checks in a program built on in-home care
FSSA’s pitch is straightforward — this isn’t red tape, it’s risk. To taxpayers and to the Hoosiers the program is supposed to protect.
Families aren’t buying the framing
Indiana Families United for Care says the audit actually proves their point — that FSSA let this mess grow on its watch. What they don’t want is for the state to swing the other way and take it out on patients.
“FSSA’s attendant care audit shows what we’ve been saying all along — that FSSA must eliminate policies allowing providers to capitalize on the health and welfare of our children,” said Sarah Saylor and Renee Case, who speak for the group.
Their ask to the Statehouse: fix it, don’t gut it. Fund it, don’t starve it. Because the alternative to in-home care isn’t cheaper — it’s a hospital bed or an institution, on the state’s dime.
