Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday that he has expanded his Medicaid fraud investigation to Upstate New York. So far, one Buffalonian has been arrested and subpoenas have been issued to seven local health care companies.
Officials see this as a "double fraud" - nurses are swindling patients by either not providing the care for which they are paid or by over billing, and they are defrauding the taxpayers who fund Medicaid.
So far, the 50 people convicted of Medicaid fraud have been ordered to pay almost $14 million in restitutions, according to a press release. Overall, 80 arrests have been made state-wide.
The investigation, called "Operation Home Alone," has involved both sting operations and subpoenas issued on Wednesday and Thursday. Melody McKnight, a 26-year-old Buffalo resident who was the employee recruiter for Willcare, Inc., was arrested and charged after being caught in an undercover sting. Cuomo pointed out that if a company is issued a subpoena, it doesn't mean they did something wrong.
The fraud that is plaguing Medicaid's home care system is driving up property taxes, according to Cuomo.
"This is Medicaid, paid for by your tax dollars, and my tax dollars. It's a very significant amount of your property tax, and county governments are talking about it all across the state...how quickly it's increased," Cuomo said during a press conference.
Cuomo thinks a lack of oversight has caused this problem, not flaws within the governmental program.
"Our point is, the concept is right, the program is right, we want to clean up the fraud," he said.
Officials think it is important to address this issue now, because the population of people aged 85 and over is expected to increase 27 percent by 2020, according to David Holland, a member of the American Association for Retired Persons and an Amherst resident.
Already, approximately 150,000 residences in the state are receiving Medicaid-covered home health care services, Cuomo said.
"His actions today will ensure that New York's aging population will be well cared for in the future," Holland said about Cuomo's new initiative.
