ND Department Of Human Services Hasn’t Been Investigating Medicaid Fraud
North Dakota’s State Auditor just sent to Governor John Hoeven a damning report about the state’s Department of Health and its handling of Medicaid fraud (it’s worth remembering that Hoeven’s former campaign manager Carol Olson heads the department).
PlainsDaily.com has a full report as well as a full copy of the audit. You’ll need to read it to believe it, but here are some highlights:
* The DHS has not been investigating Medicaid fraud.
* Some members of the DHS don’t even know they have a department for Medicaid fraud.
* The Medicaid fraud department has just two full time employees and one part-time employee.
* The administrator in charge of the department is not qualified to hold that position.
* The state is not in compliance with federal requirements for detecting and investigating Medicaid fraud.
According to the DHS website, over 60,000 North Dakotans are on Medicaid. It’s hard to imagine a program with tens of thousands of people enrolled but not one instance of fraud even investigated.
And if anyone believes that’s because there was no fraud committed, I’ve got some ocean-front property here in Minot to sell you.
It appears from the audit that at least some of the deficiency in investigating fraud stems from the fact that the person in charge of doing the investigations isn’t qualified. This is no recent development. The employee was hired in 2007, and an audit in 2008 called attention to the lack of qualifications.
It still hasn’t been fixed, and the taxpayers are footing the bill for the consequences.
Tags: carol olson, John Hoeven, medicaid, north dakota department of health, North Dakota News, north dakota state auditor
