HOUSTON (AP) _ A federal audit says Texas should repay at least $133 million in Medicaid funding misspent on unnecessary dental and orthodontic procedures.

The Houston Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/1HSruu7 ) the amount is part of an ongoing legal fight over responsibility for a spike in costs for braces and other dental care in Texas between 2007 and 2012.

The federal government has maintained the Texas Health and Human Services Commission for years didn’t address the practices of Xerox Corp., the contractor it hired to pre-authorize the dental procedures.

A Texas Health and Human Services Commission spokeswoman says her agency would not pay the federal government until the state had resolved a lawsuit it has filed against Xerox.

A Xerox spokesman says his company always performed its work in good faith and with transparency.