Hank Silverberg, wtop.com

WASHINGTON – Local governments are bracing for what some say will be a dramatic increase in costs stemming from the federal health care bill.

A study done for Prince William County estimates changes in the law will cost county taxpayers an estimated $15 million during the next three years. That total includes $2.2 million needed to hire 50 new employees to administer an estimated 13,000 newly eligible Medicaid cases.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart says the costs could lead to cuts elsewhere in the county budget to make up the difference.

In Fairfax County, Virginia’s largest school district is conducting an audit of its health insurance program for the system’s 22,149 employees and their estimated 28,000 dependents, in hopes of cutting down on fraud.

The school district is asking employees to prove they’re married and who their dependents are by providing birth certificates and the first page of their federal tax returns.

Sally Todd, executive director of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, says there’s some concern about who sees that information, which is provided to the school district and processed by an independent auditing firm.

“There may be a way employees may be able to redact certain information that the county does not need to have, that they feel is a privacy concern,” Todd says.

Fairfax school employees must provide the documentation by January. A spokeswoman for the school district says the copies of the documents sent to the auditor will be shredded once the information is entered into a computer, and each employee will be given a special number to protect them from a data breach.

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