My Medicaid Fraud Control Unit reported this statistic in their year-end summary to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which partially funds the Unit. We have an obligation to scrutinize and punish these criminals. When they steal from this program, they take advantage of those who desperately need this assistance and cheat the taxpayers who gave billions of their hard earned dollars to fund it. Medicaid fraud cases have dramatically increased over the years, not only in the amount of fraudulent billings and but also in the difficulty of investigating them.
Many cases now total in the millions of dollars.
Providers are far more adept today at disguising their fraudulent billings. Following are examples of two successful Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigations, which indicate just how committed the Office of the Attorney General is to combating medicaid fraud. One unscrupulous provider, Youth Enhancement Services, picked out juvenile patients merely because they were the right age, hence eligible for Medicaid coverage. After falsely declaring that these youths had alcohol or drug addictions, the clinic filed bogus Medicaid claims for treating them. In some cases, the counseling for these young people did not even take place.