Secret video alleges possible Medicaid fraud in Maine

Source: BDN

AUGUSTA, Maine — Two conservative Maine policy groups released video footage on Thursday that they say shows a state employee encouraging an individual seeking Medicaid to hide his income.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) and Americans for Prosperity-Maine (AFP) held a joint press conference in Augusta to unveil a secretly recorded interaction between a Department of Health and Human Services employee in Biddeford and a man who identified himself as Ted Ceanneidigh, who was applying for taxpayer-funded health care.

According to the video, the individual revealed to the DHHS worker that he had more than enough money to buy private health insurance but could not provide pay stubs because all his income was in cash and precious metals.

The employee responded by saying: “They’re going to ask if you have income. You don’t have to go into details. You don’t have a paycheck, you don’t file taxes, you have no income.



Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2011/08/11/politics/secret-video-alleges-possible-medicaid-fraud/

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Video at link.

...of prosecuting this one guy, and of setting up more bureaucracy to ensure that the thousands of people just like him(!) don't try to pull the same scam, and publicizing how awful Medicaid is and how unAmerican and suchlike, and how sleazy every Medicaid recipient potentially is...

...as opposed to the cost of quietly booting the shitheel off the program when someone turns him in, and moving on to the next thing.

wearily,
Bright

and 2. Did either of you actually watch the video?

The employee was a woman...and the man was trying to set her up, just like we saw in the BS Acorn "stings". Which was the whole point of posting the article.

Fraud will cost Medicare and Medicaid about $100 billion this year. I think everyone would agree that this money is seriously needed to provide medical care.

The severity of punishment for the types of crimes that undercut the foundation of our society are not sufficient to deter perpetrators.

Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years imprisonment and forfeiture of $17.179 billion, for Securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, money laundering, making false filings with the SEC, theft from an employee benefit plan.

If we are serious about eliminating the fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, we should institute similar sentencing guidelines for this type of crime.

which indicates the state employee may well have been in on it.

I'll bet he's Irish, all right, but that his real name is James O'Keefe. :grr:

an application...he never got approved or anything like that

special...yawn

The poser never submitted an application.

and these medical supply companies. Hell, over 30 years ago my mother had a friend who would go to the Dr. The Dr. would give him 25.00 cash and would bill medicaid more than double for the visit.

i have a cpap machine. it is a plastic box, some hose, a little pump and a microchip. i have had fish tank pumps that were smarter.
oh, yeah, and a silicone mask, some elastic and velcro. i have sneakers that are more hi-tech.
cost to my insurance company? over $2k. hello.

Know you know that they're buying those things for less than 2 dollars from China and those things cost plenty from medical supply stores.

and saying- this thing, unsubsidized, costs $500. it is a million times smarter than your thingamajig. :wtf:

:puke:

Give me a fucking break. That's about as big of a problem as illegal aliens voting.

If it is a lot then that is fraud.

But if he has less than is permitted then it is not.

Precious metals -- what does that mean -- old jewelry that isn't worth nearly what he thinks or gold bullion?

This will require more investigation. But I say this without having seen the video. Maybe the applicant states what he thinks is the value of his "assets."

http://www.mainepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/REMARKS-Press-Conference-Revealing-Evidence-of-Maine-Medicaid-System.pdf

Good morning and thank you for joining us. I am Carol Weston and I serve as State Director of
Americans for Prosperity-Maine. I am joined today by Lance Dutson, the newly-named chief executive
officer of the Maine Heritage Policy Center.
Today, AFP and MHPC have partnered to share with you the shocking results of an investigation into the
Maine Medicaid system’s vulnerability to fraud and abuse. We will show you video footage from an
interaction earlier this year between an employee at the Biddeford office of the Department of Health
and Human Services, and an individual posing as a “pharmaceutical” importer seeking free, taxpayerfunded
Medicaid health coverage.
The video you are about to see was produced and sent to me by James O’Keefe.


And Americans for Prosperity is a Koch group:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity


Looks like a joint O'Keefe/Koch propaganda attack on Medicaid.

In 2001, Trues Pharmacy in Oakland, owned by incoming Republican Speaker of the House Robert Nutting, bought medical gloves for $4.39 per package. By the time Trues sold them to a Medicaid provider, the price had gone up to $11.11.

Such inflated charges — multiplied by thousands of gloves, adult diapers and other supplies — and the failure to keep adequate records led to the state’s finding that Nutting’s pharmacy over billed the state $1.6 million, of which he failed to pay back $1.2 million after the pharmacy went bankrupt.

Nutting is the presumptive speaker of the House, selected by fellow Republican legislators two weeks ago. His election to the third most powerful post in state government will not become official until he is approved by the full Legislature in January.

Despite the recent revelations that Nutting left the state and federal Medicaid programs with the $1.2 million in bad debt, Republicans and even some Democrats have said it will not harm his chance to become speaker.

http://www.sunjournal.com/state/story/946286

her employer?

Something smells.

The media does a good job at copying press releases, though.

kinda funny.... he didn't approved ..who cares

ONE WHOLE GUY might be catching a break! Can't have that, not when I have a fishing trip to Vietnam for my boss to pay for!