Medicaid programs in 9 states failed to verify whether 41% of the children in the programs had received any of the required health screenings during a 1-year study period.
Investigators in the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services looked at 9 states' compliance with the Medicaid Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment screening schedule.
The states included in the study were Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia.
HHS inspector general's office staffers looked at records for 345 children enrolled in Medicaid in the states in 2007.
The record review suggests that 76% of the children eligible for the screenings may have missed at least one required medical, vision or hearing screening in the previous year, and that 41% of the children had no records of receiving any of the required screenings.
Fewer than half of the children received the required vision and hearing screenings.