BATON ROUGE — A state audit revealed that the agency overseeing Louisiana's Medicaid benefits paid out nearly $10 million to benefit more than 1,000 people who had died over the past six years.

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor's Office said Monday that no one received benefits directly despite being dead. The $9.6 million was paid to managed care organizations through fixed payments between February 2019 and March 2025. Auditors suggested using obituaries and additional databases to discover when beneficiaries have died.

Louisiana has 1.6 million people on Medicaid, more than a third of the state's 4.6 million residents. Two years ago, the state had nearly 2.1 million people on Medicaid, or more than 45 percent of the population.

The planned audit reviewed Louisiana Department of Health efforts to identify misspending to benefit people who have died. 

"Overall, we found that while LDH appears to be identifying and removing deceased Medicaid beneficiaries through the  various state and federal sources it currently uses, LDH could identify additional deceased Medicaid beneficiaries if it included additional third-party data sources such as obituaries, the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File, and other state’s Vital Records databases," state Auditor Mike Waguespack wrote to legislative leaders.

In its review of 1,072 recently discovered deaths, a majority — 511 — were identified via obituaries, with the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File identifying 168, the audit says. The complete audit can be read here.

The state Department of Health said it concurred with the auditors' recommendations to take a broader look for those no longer eligible for benefits.