Nassau County may soon be able to claim up to 50 percent of the money recovered in successful Medicaid fraud investigations due to legislation U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills) said he planned to introduce this week.
Israel, joined by Republican Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano in a press conference at the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola on Friday, said the legislation would result in tens of thousands of dollars being returned to local taxpayers.
“Medicaid fraud in this country costs the taxpayers $22 billion a year,” Israel said. “We’re at a time where every dollar counts, when we have deficits and debt. We should not be surrendering $22 billion a year to criminals and that’s what’s happened.”
With Israel’s Local Medicaid Enforcement Incentives Act of 2012, $100 million would be appropriated from the Department of Health and Human Services’ annual budget to fund Medicaid fraud investigations.
If the bill is passed, counties would receive 50 percent of the money recovered from the successful investigations, which at the individual state level would receive up to $5 million in funding.
“Counties, the county executive told me, are in the best position to investigate and uncover and help recover Medicaid fraud because they’re on the ground,” Israel said. “They are the eyes and ears. The other thing the county executive told me was that ‘every dollar that we spend fighting Medicaid fraud returns $8 in recovered funds.’ That’s a pretty good investment.”
Nassau County investigated 4,701 cases of welfare fraud, waste and abuse, primarily in the area of Medicaid in 2011, Mangano said.
Those cases yielded $9.79 million in savings, through “front-end detection, traditional investigations and criminal fraud referrals to law enforcement,” Mangano said.
The county Department of Social Services Office of Investigation also collected $6.73 million last year by pursuing Medicaid fraud funds in civil court cases, Mangano said.
Currently, New York allows counties to claim up to 15 percent of the recovered funds from Medicaid providers and 25 percent from cases involving Medicaid recipients.
“This represents working together for the people, bipartisan cooperation that results in smart government initiatives that delivers essential services, while avoiding waste, fraud and abuse,” Mangano said of Israel’s bill.
Each year, Nassau spends $248 million to fight Medicaid fraud, Mangano said.
“It is alarming to find those that go out of their ways to fraud (Medicaid),” the county executive said.
In April, an unidentified 51-year-old Great Neck resident was arrested for allegedly receiving $40,722 in Medicaid benefits after he reported that he was a part-time security guard working at a retail store and that his family paid $750 in monthly rent.
But a county DSS investigation revealed the man was the owner of an unidentified “successful” Manhattan clothing store and purchased a home in Great Neck in 2006 for $856,000.
The Great Neck man was implicated in the fraud scheme along with seven other county residents from Westbury, Merrick, Plainview and East Meadow.
“Congressman Israel’s legislation will enhance those efforts,” Mangano said. “The county absorbs the cost of the investigation and really doesn’t receive any dollars of the recovery. Congressman Israel’s legislation will provide a portion of those dollars to come back to support the investigative services.”
Israel said the bill will now likely be passed on to the House Energy and Finance Committee. The congressman said he does not expect opposition from House Republicans on the bill.
“I want to thank the county executive for sharing this issue with me and letting me to go to work, not just for him, but with him on an initiative that should pass quickly,” Israel said. “Anytime you get a Republican and a Democrat these days agreeing on something, pass it. Don’t debate it. Pass it.”
