"That Which Shall Not Be Named"
Why Won't California and New York Discuss Alleged Fraud?
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has an Oversight Subcommittee hearing tomorrow morning on Medicaid fraud. The written testimony is already available online — and it’s noteworthy more for what it doesn’t say.
To wit, officials from New York and California — the two largest state Medicaid programs — omitted from their prepared remarks any reference to the specific program integrity issues highlighted in their states. Nothing about hospice fraud in California, or the questionable personal care contract in New York. Not a word.
By contrast, officials from Minnesota and Ohio went into some detail about the reports of fraud in their states, and what they have done and are doing to respond to them. Some may find their responses late, insufficient, or both. But at least they were willing to talk about the issue before their constituents and Congress.
Perhaps the silence from California and New York represents part of a legal strategy—not least because Amir Bassiri, the New York state Medicaid director, is a named respondent in the suit the Justice Department filed against the state last week. But it’s not like Members of Congress aren’t going to ask about these issues during the Q&A. If Bassiri feels for legal reasons that he can’t comment the contractor’s alleged fraud, at least he should have had the courtesy to say so in his written statement.
As the saying goes, the first step is admitting that you have a problem. And when heads of the two largest Medicaid programs can’t even talk about the specifics of the fraud allegedly occurring in their states, how exactly will anyone solve it…?