Advocacy Center: New effort to fight Medicaid fraud announced by state

Advocacy Center's Notes
New effort to fight Medicaid fraud announced by state
 Monday, November 2, 2009 at 11:39am
"More than 700 private firms that provide in-home care for the elderly and people with disabilities will face comprehensive audits in the coming months as part of a first-of-its-kind effort to root out fraud and abuse, state officials said Thursday. ..."

By Jan Moller, The Times-Picayune
October 29, 2009, 7:28PM

Lois Simpson, AC's Executive Director, is quoted in this article.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/10/post_99.html
Updated about 2 months ago
Michael
Michael
I'm very glad to hear this! Maybe if they can clean up the system of fraud, then people like my daughter can get the services she so deperately needs and deserves!
November 2, 2009 at 1:01pm
Barbara Burton
Barbara Burton
It is true that there is a great deal of abuse in not just the Medicare system but the Medicaid as well. However, fraud is not coming from your local hospital lab or xray tech. There is no incentive for hospital staff to committ fraud and all the ones I've known, and I've known many, were always acutely aware of fraud and abuse issues. If our ... See Moregovernment really wants to save money they need to hire more staff for the Inspector General's office to do unannounced audits on all healthcare facilities, home health agencies and nursing homes. (If they have nothing to hide, then they shouldn't shudder at the thought of an audit) The public also has a respondibility and that is to study their bills when they get them in mail. Question everything. Then the county Medicaid offices need to be audited. Do all those patients on Medicaid really qualify? Did the patients that were denied really eligible?
Quite frankly, if we took away several of the adminastrative positions in Medicare and Medicaid and put them out in the field to perform these audits, we would not only save dollars in adminastrative salaries but they might even recognize an avalanche of abuse, not by the patients but by their very workers we pay!
PS: I think this might be called a "root cause analysis" process.
November 2, 2009 at 3:46pm

In this note

No one.