Kentucky State Auditor's Office says the state spent more than $800 million on people enrolled in Medicaid and multiple states.

And state lawmakers want to crack down on that waste.

Here's our Emily Prince with more from Frankfort.

We should go after every one of these individuals, regardless of who they are, because I'm sorry, fraud is fraud.

Doesn't matter who you are.

Some state lawmakers were fired up in Frankfort on Thursday after hearing this report from the state auditor's office.

Kentucky has paid over $836 million for individuals who are also being serviced by another state's Medicaid system.

The auditor's office released those findings nearly a year ago, after they say they discovered more than a billion total dollars of waste in Kentucky's Medicaid program.

The state auditor general counsel said the office investigated the processing of what are called Parris alerts.

That's a notice from the federal government that a person may be receiving Medicaid benefits from more than one state.

Did you ever find any instances where caseworkers or where anyone that was working on these were told not to process the Parris alerts?

Yes, caseworkers relayed that specifically to us.

We have quotes from them in saying that.

And they and, you know, in my view, they were just doing what they were told.

Kentucky's commissioner for the Department of Medicaid Services rebutted the auditor's findings in a letter to the General Assembly.

She wrote, quote, the auditor's report is an incomplete analysis that appears to count everyone who appeared to be enrolled in Medicaid and Kentucky and another state at the same time as wasteful spending.

The auditor fails to take any steps to determine which state was actually responsible for covering those individuals, or whether any duplicate payments for medical services occurred.

In, quote, the CEO of the Kentucky Associations of Health Plans shared a similar sentiment during Thursday's meeting.

A data match identifying a potential duplicate enrollment is not necessarily the same thing as a determination that an improper payment actually occurred.

That doesn't mean overlapping enrollment should be ignored.

It does mean we need to understand what caused it.

A Western Kentucky lawmaker questioned if part of the problem is relying on Medicaid enrollees to self-report when they've moved out of the state.

I can see a situation where some people don't want to identify where they're living necessarily, or they don't want to give up their present provider.

I may move across the line but want to keep their providers there.

The House Minority Caucus chair noted the General Assembly's passage of House Bill two this year, which majorly overhauled Medicaid, including checking the status of a person's Medicaid eligibility every six months.

Do you think that it's in Kentucky's best interest for us to for at least a little while, wait and see how House Bill two impacts the duplicative payments, impacts the work requirements, impacts the providers and the people of Kentucky.

Leaders of Kentucky's managed care organizations, or Aimco's, said this could be a good path forward as changes to Medicaid are still coming down the pike from the federal level.

The state auditor, a staff member, said.

For now, the cabinet for Health and Family Services says they're providing more training to Medicaid caseworkers on how to remove beneficiaries who are enrolled in multiple states.

In Frankfort for Kentucky edition.

I'm Emily Prince.

The oversight and Investigations Committee co-chair Senator Greg Elkins, said.

Next month, the committee will hear from officials within the cabinet for Health and Family Services, which oversees Medicaid in Kentucky.