ALBANY — The state’s Medicaid program has misspent at least $150 million since 2002 due to lax controls on hospital reimbursements and other billing errors, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli revealed yesterday.

The state Department of Health made $21.4 million in “excessive and unnecessary” payments to out-of-state hospitals that treated Medicaid recipients from New York, DiNapoli charged in two audits.

A third audit found the agency overpaid local hospitals $74.5 million by improperly failing to count repeated hospital visits for one ailment as a single charge, and lost millions more on other billing errors.

“Too often, New York’s Medicaid system treats tax dollars like Monopoly money,” DiNapoli said.

The Department of Health said it was tightening oversight. Brendan Scott