RSS
Home
Decade long medicaid fraud reach record settlement of $540 million
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
A coalition of Republicans and one dissident Democrat are not seated in the Senate chamber at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., Wednesday, June 24, 2009. A special Senate session called by Gov. David Paterson ended minutes after it started, with nothing accomplished. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Medicaid is a program providing health care to the poor, funded largely by the federal government but partly by state governments. The issue stemmed from claims for reimbursement for school-based services like transportation and speech therapy for children eligible for Medicaid from 1990 to 2001. The probe was revealed in 2002 by Sen. Charles Schumer, who was working hard to keep New York from having to make back payments.
The federal government say the city and state filed claims that were incomplete, in some cases for services that officials knew weren't covered under Medicaid. The city will pay $100 million over time, in $10 million supplements. In addition, the settlement ensures that federal Medicaid funding remains available to school districts so they can provide children with disabilities the services they need. One thing comes to mind, the national health care bill isn't being passed as fast as Obama would like and for good reason, Can we trust the gov't to handle health-care that will be managed much like the Medicaid and Medicare system, when we hear about fraud of this magnitude, it sheds light on abuses that can go on undetected for years. An unidentified speech therapist will receive $10 million from the settlement as the whistle-blower who called attention to the state and city billing practices.
The $540 million is a record settlement that the cash-strapped city and state government has to fork over to the feds, recouping losses for phony Medicaid claims that has been going on for a decade officials said yesterday. The state has already paid about $108 million, while the rest will be paid in 10 installments of $33.1 million over more than five years. It is unfortunate that state and city funds have to be repaid to the federal government, some believe that this settlement requires payment of approximately $1 billion less than the city and state could potentially have had to pay if the matter had gone to litigation. Paterson's office said the state and city have identified and corrected problems in record keeping.
Related Articles:
Comments
