Your Tax Dollar At Work: Fighting Medicaid Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in NYC

The New York Post has reported that the New York City Human Resources Administration (“HRA) spent $15.6 million on Medicaid audits of providers since 2006 and has managed to recover only $11 million in misspent Medicaid funds.  The paper also reported that Medicaid Inspector General James C. Cox wrote, in a February 15, 2013 letter to HRA Commissioner Robert Doar, that the recoveries were “disappointingly low and also that he was “…particularly concerned . . . HRA’s backlogged audits are due to frequent inaccurate and missed audit findings.

Deputy HRA Commissioner Connie Ress defended the agency’s audits, claiming that the State has been slow to respond to it. NYC, along with a limited number of counties in New York State, conduct their own Medicaid audits and investigations as part of the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General’s County Demonstration Project.

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).