91直播

91直播 Attorney General Anne Lopez pushed back Thursday against claims leveled a day earlier by Vice President JD Vance that the state isn’t serious about combating Medicaid fraud.

“91直播 has not ignored Medicaid fraud,” Lopez said in a statement, suggesting that Vance presented an unfair assessment of results achieved recently by the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit under the state Department of the Attorney General. The unit is largely funded by the federal government.

Vance, who chairs an anti-fraud task force that President Donald Trump formed in March, said Wednesday during a White House news conference that 91直播’s MFCU produced no Medicaid fraud indictments or convictions over the past few years because program administrators don’t take it seriously.

“They don’t think that fraud is a big enough problem,” he said. “They don’t care about protecting resources, and they don’t care about protecting that Medicaid program.”

The department headed by Lopez didn’t dispute the tally mentioned by Vance, but said the allegations regarding the state’s effort aren’t true or supported by the record.

According to the Department of the Attorney General, since 2021 91直播’s MFCU has secured or helped secure judgments, settlements and recoveries in 25 cases amounting to $14.1 million. The tally included a $30,000 settlement last year against a Medicaid provider for fraudulent billing.

And earlier this year, 91直播’s MFCU settled a Medicaid fraud case for $208,318 and separately filed criminal charges against two individuals, one of whom has already pleaded no contest, the department added.

“Political attacks do not change the facts,” Lopez said.

Federal records based on annual reports from the states’ MFCUs show that 91直播’s unit had zero Medicaid fraud indictments and zero convictions in each of the past four fiscal years. But administrators of the program contend that enforcement efforts leading to payment recoveries in those years show the job is being taken seriously and producing results.

The Trump administration is trying to better fight fraud in the Medicaid health insurance program nationwide and singled out 91直播 as one of a handful of states leaving a lot of room for improvement.

Vance said letters were sent to every state’s MFCU Wednesday asking that they show they are aggressively and effectively prosecuting Medicaid fraud and stating that if they don’t, then federal funding representing 75% of MFCU budgets would be cut off.

Vance said the notices fundamentally are an effort to improve the federal-state working relationship on Medicaid fraud enforcement.

Thursday’s statement from the state attorney general said a team from the Office of Inspector General at the federal Department of Health and Human Services conducted an on-site review of 91直播’s MFCU in April that included staff interviews and identified challenges with the unit’s ability to initiate criminal charges and obtain convictions.

“The MFCU is actively addressing this situation, including increased collaboration with the unit’s state and federal partners to detect and investigate Medicaid and Medicare fraud in 91直播, accelerated recruitment of new investigators, and developing innovative tools for investigation,” the department said.

About 387,000 residents are enrolled in Medicaid under 91直播’s branded Med-QUEST program, which last year cost $3.2 billion, mostly funded by federal taxes.

91直播’s MFCU budget for the current fiscal year is $3.9 million, of which $976,489 is funded by the state as a 25% match, largely to pay for a staff of 15 that includes investigators, auditors and attorneys.

MFCUs are tasked with pursuing suspected civil and criminal Medicaid fraud by providers and administrators as well as cases of abuse and neglect of Medicaid beneficiaries and residents of board and care facilities.

The two criminal charges filed earlier this year were over the endangerment of an incompetent person.

“The Department of the Attorney General and the MFCU take Medicaid fraud, patient abuse and neglect very seriously,” Landon Murata, 91直播’s MFCU director, said in a statement.

MFCUs have authority to investigate and prosecute fraud involving Medicaid providers and program administration, but not to investigate or prosecute fraud committed by Medicaid beneficiaries unless the beneficiary is colluding with a provider.

Medicaid provider fraud can involve billing the program directly or through healthcare providers for medicine, supplies, equipment or services that are unnecessary, duplicative, overpriced, not provided or not covered.

“We welcome accountability,” Lopez said, “but we will not allow the work of this unit to be mischaracterized as doing nothing.”