NYCLifeinaFishbowl
By
Antony Chow
Today's
comic:
Commentary:
The New
York State Governor George Pataki issued a press
release
last week announcing his proposal to fight Medicaid fraud and abuse.
The centerpiece of this plan is the creation of the Office of
Medicaid Inspector General (MIG), which will oversee and consolidate
all Medicaid fraud fighting activities within the State.
The main problem, as I see it, with creating a new governmental agency
is that you'll need to provide the necessary resources for the office
to do its job. And if the MIG is unable to recover money on
previous payments by the State on fraudulent Medicaid claims, then the
MIG becomes another "burden" on the state budget. Ideally,
the
MIG should pay for itself through savings on preventing future Medicaid
fraud, and recovering on previous fraudulent claims. It
remains
to be seen how effectively the MIG will accomplish these objectives.
