Media

February 20, 2015 — A Texas dentist has won a defamation lawsuit against a former office manager who had accused the dentist of improper billing practices.Texas dentist Sweeta Walia, DMD, of Premier Family Dental of Plano, won a judgment against … Read More

February 20, 2015 — CSHM, the owner of the Small Smiles dental chain that was excluded from the Medicaid program last year, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District … Read More

AUSTIN — The drunken-driving trial of a former Texas health commission lawyer has been rescheduled for April, once again delaying a high-stakes and hotly anticipated test for a man who recently became infamous as part of a state contracting scandal. … Read More

AUSTIN – Fighting for his job after weeks of revelations about contracting irregularities and questionable tuition payments, Texas health commissioner Kyle Janek publicly apologized during a Wednesday legislative hearing in which state senators took turns angrily asking why they should … Read More

Earlier this month, the Texas Tribune’s Terri Langford had a great story about a couple of $2,800 chairs that former Health and Human Services Commission lawyer Jack Stick ordered for himself and Doug Wilson, his old boss at the Office … Read More

INDIANAPOLIS — Prosecutors have struck plea agreements with six former employees of a central Indiana dental clinic in connection with a Medicaid fraud investigation. The Herald Bulletin reports (http://bit.ly/19sGDsv ) dentist Paul Pangallo faces a March 30 sentencing hearing after … Read More

HOUSTON—Aliksandr Beketav, 53, Mikhail Shiforenko, 43, Alexsandr Voronov, 46, and Daniela Gozes-Wagner, 32, have been arrested following the return of a federal indictment alleging a health care fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. … Read More

AUSTIN – Two months after a massive no-bid contract erupted in scandal, eventually forcing four Texas health officials to resign, state senators finally got a chance Thursday to grill the first nominee that Gov. Greg Abbott has picked to help … Read More

Three years ago, when the Texas Health and Human Services Commission wanted software that investigators in its Office of Inspector General could use to track down Medicaid fraud, it asked the federal government to foot most of the $20 million bill. In its … Read More

Gone are the sales quota-like performance standards imposed by Jack Stick, the embattled former general counsel of Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission. And the agency is still debating what to do with the $2,800 black leather executive chair he … Read More

AUSTIN, TEXAS (Texas House of Representatives) – After Speaker Straus released committee assignments last Wednesday, Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, Chairman of the House Committee on Human Services, began work with his nine member committee setting the first hearing date for … Read More

AUSTIN – Leah Rayne just wants her job back.The former welfare recipient, who spent 20 years rising through the ranks at Texas’s health agency, found herself thrust into the news last summer after being fired for allegedly leaking confidential information … Read More

AUSTIN — There are a few doctors in the Texas Legislature, but the state Capitol is not the place to go for medical attention.Yet, along with public education and transportation funding, health care is expected to get lots of attention … Read More

AUSTIN — Now that House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the presiding officer of the Senate, have made their respective committee appointments, the heavy lifting begins in the Texas Legislature.For Rep. Four Price and his colleagues in … Read More

Over the past decade, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission has bungled several major contracts that totaled nearly $2 billion, and despite public blowups and calls for reform, problems persist in part because of a lack of accountability in … Read More

AUSTIN – Texas health officials last year used the firing of the state’s contractor for processing Medicaid claims to justify giving a no-bid “emergency” deal for more money to a company whose lobbying team included several former appointees of then-Gov. … Read More

Allegations of double billing and unlicensed administration of a drug were behind the search warrant executed by the Florida Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Unit at Churchill Dentistry in Ocala. An affidavit filed in support of the warrant relies on information … Read More

AUSTIN – Texas health officials last year used the firing of the state’s contractor for processing Medicaid claims to justify giving a no-bid “emergency” deal for more money to a company whose lobbying team included several former appointees of then-Gov. … Read More

HHSC has just issued this report. We haven’t looked at it. .

McALLEN — The owner of a McAllen ambulance company pleaded guilty Tuesday to forging documents and submitting more than $600,000 in false claims to federal and state health care programs. Frank Gonzalez, 32, appeared before U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa, … Read More

by Edgar Walters, The Texas Tribune Amid scrutiny of how the state’s largest health agency has awarded contracts to private vendors, state lawmakers said Wednesday they had “lost confidence” in the office of the agency that investigates fraud.  At the Senate … Read More

Members of the state Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday criticized the Department of Information Resources, the tech contracting hub that was used to broker an unchecked, no-bid deal with 21CT, the target of state and federal investigations.The Health and Human … Read More

HOUSTON—William Owuama, 55, and Marla Owuama, 47, of Houston, have entered guilty pleas to charges related to a healthcare fraud scheme in which they billed Medicare for more than $9 million, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. William Owuama was the … Read More

Attorneys for Austin tech firm 21CT, at the center of a no-bid state contract scandal, will depose the company’s former lobbyist about comments he made to the American-Statesman, which fueled concerns that 21CT had been inappropriately awarded a multimillion dollar-Medicaid … Read More

First the breakup, then the requisite division of property. Among the official belongings of Jack Stick, former general counsel for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, is one black leather executive chair — high-backed with a five-star wood capped … Read More

Vermont’s top health care official says there are people receiving Medicaid benefits who are not eligible, but officials are not sure how widespread the problem is. An internal memo provided to VTDigger and the firsthand account of a local tax … Read More

AUSTIN — Lawyers for the company at the center of Texas’s no-bid contract scandal will get the chance to question a lobbyist who they say caused the deal to unravel, following a Tuesday court ruling. Travis County District Judge Orlinda … Read More

2016 Budget plans will have both improvements and challenges for  Medicare and Medicaid providers. On Monday, February 2, 2015, President Barack Obama released the 2016 Federal budget. It reveals plans for saving federal money on Medicaid and Medicare which will … Read More

For over a year, we have released monthly Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) data that reflects enrollment activities across all states and growth in health coverage. The most recent Medicaid and CHIP data shows enrollment reaching over 10.1 … Read More

(Reuters) – A unit of Community Health Systems Inc, one of the largest U.S. hospital groups, and three of its hospitals have agreed to pay $75 million to settle claims that they made illegal donations to county governments in New … Read More

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The company contracted to operate toll roads throughout the state has been fined nearly $177,000 in damages by the Texas Department of Transportation. Xerox’s $100 million contract with the State of Texas includes handling customer service and … Read More

How Texas outsourced crucial state services for two decades — and got smoked. This is part of an occasional series. Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comment from James Frinzi, former lobbyist for 21CT.  The Texas Health and … Read More

TYLER, Texas — A 44-year-old woman, formerly of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, has been sentenced to federal prison for a health care fraud scheme in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales today. Vivian Yusuf pleaded guilty … Read More

AUSTIN – For years, Texas state officials have boasted about a unique program they say enables the purchase of technology products at competitive prices without a costly and lengthy bidding process. But a Houston Chronicle investigation has found that the … Read More

In State Contracting, Failure Is an Option by Aman Batheja, The Texas Tribune February 1, 2015  How Texas outsourced crucial state services for two decades — and got smoked.  In 1991, the Texas attorney general’s office signed an $11 million contract to … Read More

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, buffeted in recent months for its bungling of major contracts, purchases more technology products and services than any other state agency, with about $632 million in purchases since fiscal 2010. Combine that agency’s … Read More

As state and federal investigators continue to look into Austin tech firm 21CT’s no-bid contract with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, company executives in recent weeks have waged an aggressive public relations campaign, claiming the project was competitively … Read More

When a relatively small high-tech company lands a $20 million contract with a large state agency without having to compete for it, even though the company has no direct experience with the matter at hand, eyebrows raise and foreheads furrow, … Read More

AUSTIN – Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the need for more oversight and transparency in state contracting is so great that it cannot wait for official action from lawmakers. In a letter to all state agency heads, Abbott ordered … Read More

For those of you who follow my blog, you know that the single state agency in New Mexico, Human Services Department (HSD), accused 15 behavioral health care providers, which made up 87% of the mental health care in NM, of … Read More