Auditing the Auditors: OSC vs. OMIG

The Office of the New York State Comptroller (OSC) has just announced that it will be conducting an audit of the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG).   The audit, which is scheduled to be commenced June, is said to have been sparked by a congressional report (entitled “Billions of Federal Tax Dollars Wasted Annually by New York’s Medicaid Program”), newspaper articles, the recommendation of New York State Senate Republicans, and criticism by current and former employees of the OMIG alleging that the office has not been effective at pursuing Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse.

The OSC audit seeks to review performance results and outcomes at the OMIG. It is not known what metrics will be employed by the OSC in conducting its audit of the OMIG, which oversees the largest statewide expenditure of Medicaid funds in the entire country.

The Albany Times Union reported that Mark Johnson, a spokesman for the OSC, stated “New York’s Medicaid program is the largest in the country, and the widespread abuse found by various agencies over the years has been well-documented.” He also said that the OMIG “is the principal overseer of the program, conducting thousands of investigations a year and finding hundreds of millions of dollars in abuse. Given the enormity of the program, and recent cutbacks ordered by the federal government, the comptroller believes a thorough look at OMIG and its practices is warranted.”

For more information, please contact the author, David R. Ross, who served as Acting Medicaid Inspector General under governors Pataki and Spitzer, as well as General Counsel, Deputy Medicaid Inspector General, and Director of Audits and Investigations for the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG).