Pirate's Cove

It’s funny when Democrats say “It’s only a billion dollars” like that is chump change in Reality Land

At least $9B billed across 14 Medicaid services in Minnesota may be fraudulent, top prosecutor says

A top prosecutor suggested on Thursday that the total amount of fraud in Minnesota could be $9 billion or more.

According to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, 14 Medicaid services under audit and deemed “high risk” for fraud have cost the state $18 billion since 2018.

Thompson said a substantial amount of money billed across those programs is fraudulent, but the exact amount is still under investigation.

“I don’t make these generalizations in a hasty way,” he said. “When I say significant amount, I’m talking on the order of half or more. But we’ll see. When I look at the claims data and the providers, I see more red flags than I see legitimate providers.”

I wonder if Ilhan Omar and Tim Walz will be implicated? There’s no way they didn’t know. Anyhow, imagine how many people could have actually been helped with that $9 billion in Minnesota. And we can all assume that the actual number is much higher, but, it’s harder to track

Minnesota Department of Human Services Inspector General James Clark released a statement, saying speculation of the amount of fraud occurring is “shocking.”

“If there is evidence of Medicaid fraud, the state should be given the information so DHS can slam the door shut on payments to those individuals and businesses,” Clark said. “We have been moving more aggressively than ever to suspend payments where we see evidence of fraud and refer criminals to law enforcement for prosecution. I’ve previously sent letters to the U.S. Attorney’s Office asking them to share evidence of fraud and I’m requesting a meeting immediately to discuss how we can partner to stop criminals now.”

Yeah, well, you had your chance to do something over this fraud that has been going on for years, and you failed.

“Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud, so much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry – people coming to our state purely to exploit and defraud its programs,” Thompson said. “This is a deeply unsettling reality that all Minnesotans should understand.”

How does it not get caught when you’re seeing this amount unless people were in on it and/or covering it up?

It’s not just Minnesota. Democrats have created welfare fraud everywhere

It’s not just Minnesota.

The past few weeks have made clear that fraudsters stole billions of dollars from states’ welfare programs, much of it from Medicaid. It also appears that Democratic politicians tolerated the heist for their own political benefit. Yet politicians in virtually every state have let waste, fraud, and abuse spread like wildfire in Medicaid, putting taxpayers on the hook for an estimated $2 trillion in improper spending over the next decade alone. Thankfully, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have given states a reason to clean up this mess and spare taxpayers that pain. (snip)

The first Trump administration found that 27.4% of federal Medicaid spending was improper in 2020 — or about $120 billion at the time. The administration also found that four out of every five improper payments were the result of eligibility errors. This money flowed to people who shouldn’t have been on Medicaid and therefore diverted money and care away from its intended recipients. Five years later, it’s highly likely that at least one in five Medicaid dollars is still wrongly spent.

Yeah, I’d read the whole thing.