Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum goes kamikaze on Medicaid fraud

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is throwing some big muscle into doing something about rampant Medicaid fraud. Read this statement from the AG:
National statistics show that nearly half of Medicaid’s recipients are children and almost a third are elderly or disabled. Florida’s Medicaid program is among the largest in the country, serving more than two million people each month. Recent reports show as much as $2 billion a year may be lost in Florida’s $16 billion Medicaid program to fraud and abuse. Last year, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated 1,013 complaints and returned approximately $70 million in defrauded funds to the state.

I’m taxophobic. When I read about my tax dollars being wasted, I experience a great theoretical mental breakdown. I can’t afford to actually break down in person. I have to work. So when I see a state official actually treating taxpayer dollars with respect, I feel like I did when I saw the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, which is to say I felt the same way I feel after two glasses of Chardonnay.

When I read this statement from the AG, I felt like I’d had half a bottle of wine and the Giants had a perfect season, again beating the Patriots:
At the direction of AG McCollum, the office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit recently implemented a new statewide investigative strategy which includes focusing on the most serious and/or habitual offenders and on prosecution and prevention of patient abuse, neglect and exploitation cases. The unit has also created a 16-person Complex Civil Enforcement Bureau comprised of attorneys, financial analysts and investigators to go after individuals and companies who knowingly siphon funds from the Medicaid Program purely for personal profit.

Adding to my bliss is the fact we have a fraud reporting process—you can either call the Attorney General’s Fraud Hotline toll-free at 1-866-966-7226 or file a complaint online at: http://myfloridalegal.com.

You don’t think Florida’s the only state that’s got criminals defrauding federal dollars, do you? I didn’t think so. Now the rest of the states’ AGs need to get up off their swivels and do something about the bucks that go to the states. Because in Washington, most don’t view that money as your money and they could care less if your taxes go up which they are about to do if Congress has anything to do with it. See what Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)has to say about it in a column at Townhall. My point being we’ll have to focus on federal savings at the state level. Sounds a little convoluted, doesn’t it?

If Washington was able to understand the concept of running a tight checkbook, I’d drink a whole bottle of wine. To celebrate the Jaguars beating the Patriots in next year's Super Bowl.

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