The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded an $815,760 grant to the V.I. Health Department for the design, acquisition and planning for implementing a Medicaid Management Information System.

The purpose of the system is to speed up and improve the accuracy of processing claims from the territory's Medicaid program, the Medical Assistance Program, according to a Government House statement.

The system will help with identifying and resolving fraud and abuse cases and program design and budgeting, according to the statement.

It also will enable "a more robust Medical Assistance Program that can serve more beneficiaries and provide a more comprehensive array of services to those beneficiaries through the optimized use of local and federal funding," Gov. John deJongh Jr. said in the statement.

He went on to say that the health-care reform legislation currently being debated in Congress would move the local Medicaid program toward "state-like" treatment - and as a result, the program would experience considerable growth that can be managed only through effective use of information technology.

The grant is strictly for Medicaid Management Information System design, acquisition and implementation planning activities and must be matched with $90,640 in local funds, according to the statement.

Officials plan to seek additional federal funding sometime late this year or in early 2010 for Medicaid Management Information System implementation and operations.