Missouri audit: almost 10,000 people enrolled in Medicaid twice, and nine of 16 findings on federal funds were repeats of past audits.

Friends, Scripture says whoever is faithful in little is faithful also in much. Missouri's auditor just checked the state's faithfulness with a great deal. A new audit from State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick examined about $20.5 billion in federal spending during fiscal year 2025 and identified 16 findings, Missourinet reports. Nine of them had been reported in previous audits. Fitzpatrick said failing to fix them raises the risk of fraud, waste and improper payments. The headline finding is duplicate enrollment in the state's Medicaid eligibility systems. "We found almost 10,000 people that were enrolled in the Medicaid program twice," Fitzpatrick told Missourinet, which he said can add up to between $50 million and $60 million a year in spending the state didn't need to make. The audit also found a backlog of about 85,000 Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program eligibility redeterminations as of Dec. 31, 2025. In the Child and Adult Care Food Program, overseen by the Department of Health and Senior Services, auditors found 12% of meal reimbursement claims tested were unsupported or contained errors, a problem that has shown up in multiple audits. And some providers found to have significant overpayments in one version of the program were allowed to keep participating in the other. "They were allowed to continue working in the other program," Fitzpatrick said. "We want to make sure that money is being spent on people who are actually eligible for the program and need the care," he said. Let me translate the auditor's language. A repeat finding means somebody was told, in writing, and didn't fix it. That isn't a partisan failing. It's a management failing, and it costs the people the program exists to serve. Friends, fix the nine repeats first, and report the progress before the next audit has to find them again.