Money Left on the Table

The New York City Department of Education (DOE) failed to recoup a cumulative $356 million in federal Medicaid dollars for eligible special education services between Fiscal Years 2012 and 2014, forcing the redirection of other City funds to cover the shortfall, according to a new analysis conducted by City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. By way of comparison, $356 million in lost revenues is more than the entire universal pre-kindergarten budget for FY 2015.

As the most recent Financial Plan shows, the failure to effectively manage special education reimbursements is not projected to improve in the near future. Compared to earlier financial plan projections, the current FY 2015 budget reflects downward Medicaid adjustments for fiscal years 2015 – 2018 of a cumulative $310 million, the Comptroller’s analysis found, for a total of $666 million in unrealized federal dollars “left on the table” over a seven year span.