PoughkeepsieJournal.com - N.Y. Republicans look at Medicaid problems
Billions are wasted each year through mismanagement, waste and outright fraud in the Medicaid system. The challenge is how to prevent the fraud and waste, and go after people and companies who abuse the system.

That was the message of a panel of Republican assemblymen and software makers who met in Beacon Tuesday to talk about New York’s problems with Medicaid.

New York spent $46 billion on Medicaid last year, about 40 percent more than California. There was an estimated $4.5 billion worth of fraud in the state last year, according to the panelists.

At the same time, the number of audits in New York actually decreased last year, according to a report from the inspector general’s office of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Assembly Republicans are holding panels across the state, said Tom O’Mara, chairman of the Assembly Republican Task Force on Medicaid Fraud, Waste and Abuse.

They’re doing it to “work on areas of waste and abuse within the Medicaid system,” to “help reap significant savings … passed down to the taxpayers of New York.”

The Republicans said they want foremost to “rein in the spending” of the program, but also want the state to take over the funding of Medicaid so the money doesn’t come out of county budgets.

The panelists noted that some counties, particularly upstate, are disproportionately burdened by Medicaid expenses.

Newburgh Assemblyman Tom Kirwan said not addressing the fraud and waste would be irresponsible.

In a dig at Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Poughkeepsie Assemblyman Joel Miller said nothing was preventing him from using his resources as attorney general from helping to fight the fraud.

I want in on this panel, something like this can do some real good digging into the abuses and corruption and start to target the areas that need to be removed, fixed, or even prosecutitions started..