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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | April 14, 2023 03:44 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Rob W. Kauffman |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Stopping Medicaid Fraud and False Claims |
| I intend to introduce legislation in the near future to enhance the abilities of the Attorney General and Inspector General to find, extinguish, and deter fraudulent and false Medicaid claims that are costing our state millions. The commonwealth operates the third-largest Medicaid program in the country, and the program is growing faster than any other Medicaid program. Due to the considerable amount of taxpayer money used to fund Medicaid and the vulnerable population the program benefits, it is important to ensure that taxpayer money is used to assist those in need. Each dollar siphoned away by fraud ends up harming a person truly in need who would have benefited from that support. To better ferret out and fight attempts to defraud Medicaid, my legislation will apply triple damages and an enhanced set of civil penalties to those who knowingly pursue false or fraudulent Medicaid claims. In addition, my legislation will build on current anti-fraud efforts in two ways. First, the state Inspector General will be granted jurisdiction to pursue civil penalties arising from Medicaid fraud. Second, the Attorney General’s current Medicaid Fraud Control Unit will be supported by a new dedicated funding stream to support their critical operations. Unlike “bounty hunter” bills which incentivize private lawsuits searching for settlements - unfortunately resulting in a share of unnecessary lawsuits that drive up our health care providers’ costs while delivering windfalls to those plaintiffs’ lawyers - this bill will rely on our state’s law enforcement professionals to get at the root of Medicaid fraud. I hope you will join me in supporting our Attorney General and Inspector General, while striking at those who would defraud our vulnerable citizens. |
Introduced as HB1439