Nursing home industry advocates in Rhode Island are bristling at a report that state Medicaid contractors are having to hunt down providers to take back $60 million in improper payments.

Some nursing homes were paid twice by Medicaid recently due to a state software glitch. The mix-up relates to the Ocean State’s 2016 implementation of new a new computer initiative, the Unified Health and Infrastructure Project, or UHIP.

A report in the Providence Journal on Thursday described state officials “chasing” unresponsive nursing homes, a depiction that’s far from the truth, said Scott Fraser, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Health Care Association.

“I’m not a fan of the impression that nursing homes are ignoring a request to repay millions,” he told McKnight’s on Friday. “We’re certainly ready, willing and able to repay any overpayments, but we just want to be able to reconcile with the state.”

Rhode Island advanced nursing homes about $60.8 million while scores of applications were processed in the UHIP, according to the Journal. Most of that represented double payments since SNFs were eventually paid again when the original reimbursements were processed. The “balky” $617 million public assistance computer system has caused several problems, according to some observers.

While the “stunned” head of the Rhode Island Oversight Committee, Rep. Patricia Serpa, criticized allegedly lackadaisical state recovery efforts, as well as providers’ supposed repayment reluctance, Fraser responded pragmatically.

He said providers are willing to negotiate a reasonable repayment plan with officials, but added that the state still owes many operators other payments.

“If we’re told by the state that we owe $300,000 in repayments and yet the state owes us maybe more than a million dollars in unpaid Medicaid claims, that’s hard for our members to deal with,” Fraser said. “You’re saying we owe this much, but you owe us three or four times that. So, that’s always a struggle for some of our member homes.”