April 24, 2017 — The ADA has agreed to pay almost $2 million to settle two discrimination charges filed against the association. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigated charges that the association fired two employees in retaliation for … Read More
Many state Medicaid programs are trying to improve their data analytics and provider education to curb fraud and waste within the program — efforts recently criticized in a federal report — one official said this week.Dianne Hasselman, deputy executive director … Read More
The Texas Senate confirmed Charles Smith’s appointment on April 19 as the Health Human Services executive commissioner for a two-year term at the head of the state’s largest agency. Smith, a Childress native, oversees an agency of 53,000 employees that … Read More
Sherry Cook, the embattled executive director of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, is stepping down from her post amid a series of spending controversies at the agency. In a Tweet early Monday afternoon, Gov. Greg Abbott welcomed what his office … Read More
An Anchorage dentist and his office manager are facing charges of fraud over unnecessarily sedating patients and then charging Medicaid. The state’s Medicaid fraud unit on Monday filed a 17-count criminal complaint against Dr. Seth Lookhart and his office manager, … Read More
Texas is known for being an alluring place to live: a can-do attitude, economic growth, robust cities with expansive opportunity, and vast outdoor adventures are but a few of the reasons so many Americans choose to become Texans. However, the … Read More
Procurement Director Edward Armstrong must have a feeling of deja vu.Disclosure provisions in the state’s competitive bidding process have landed him in the hot seat again, this time as a defendant in a lawsuit filed last week by DSM USA … Read More
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission did not always claim Federal Medicaid reimbursement for managed care payments in compliance with Federal requirements. Of the 3,170 beneficiary matches in our review, 3,045 were assigned more than 1 Medicaid identification number. … Read More
The state’s top liquor regulator got “hazardous duty pay” — typically provided to state employees doing risky work — while attending alcohol industry conferences at fancy resorts in Hawaii, Florida and California, state records show. The reason: Sherry Cook was … Read More
A Boston company has asked a judge to overturn an Arkansas official’s decision that resulted in the firm losing a bid for a multimillion-dollar contract to manage dental benefits for Medicaid recipients. In a lawsuit filed Monday in Pulaski County … Read More
McALLEN — Five Valley residents have been charged with Medicare fraud and the payment of illegal kickbacks. According to the charging documents, each of the five individuals engaged in conspiracies to refer Medicare beneficiaries to a home health agency … Read More
BALTIMORE (AP) — Authorities say a Maryland doctor has paid $450,000 to the state to resolve allegations that she submitted false billing records to the Medicaid program. Officials say this week’s settlement with Dr. Sabiha Mohiuddin, who owns and operates … Read More
Can you imagine if state lawmakers wanted to tax private schools to balance the Texas public school budget? Texans would be outraged by such an absurd proposal. This outrageous scheme is precisely what some lawmakers want to do with nursing … Read More
WASHINGTON, DC, USA, March 30, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Texas Corporate Whistleblower Center is urging a medical doctor with proof any type of healthcare facility or company in Texas has been and is engaged in a significant scheme to overbill … Read More
Anna Ramirez-Ambriz, 55, entered a guilty plea on Friday to allegedly defrauding Texas Medicaid of more than $3 million, according to a news release. Ambriz is the owner of Compassionate Medical Supply, a medical equipment company in Edinburg. Between 2007 … Read More
The owner and operator of five Houston-area home health agencies pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud Medicare and the State of Texas’s Medicaid-funded Home and Community-Based Service and Primary Home Care programs of more than $17 million. He also pleaded … Read More
Montpelier, Vt., – Dr. Marko Vujicic, Chief Economist & Vice President of the Health Policy Institute, a division of the American Dental Association, provided the latest analysis regarding access to dental care in Vermont. Speaking at the statehouse in Montpelier … Read More
In seeking to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has said “one out of every three physicians in this nation aren’t seeing Medicaid patients.” House Speaker Paul Ryan said “more and more … Read More
Former patients of a Harrison Twp. dental office under investigation by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for Medicaid fraud spoke out today.Agents with the state’s Medicaid Fraud Investigative Unit raided Dixie Dental and Denture, 3609 N. Dixie Drive, owned by … Read More
Government efforts to fight health-care fraud would get a $70 million boost under the Trump administration’s proposed budget blueprint for fiscal year 2018. The March 16 proposal would provide $751 million in discretionary funding for the Health Care Fraud and … Read More
MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (WNCT)–The state accuses A Pefect Fit for You of defrauding it of more than $12 million through Medicaid claims without proper paperwork. The store’s owner, Margaret Gibson, is also accused by her former business partner, Shelley Bandy, … Read More
Governors are analyzing the House Republican bill to restructure Medicaid and phase out the Obamacare expansion of the program, and they don’t like what they see. That prompted four Republican governors from Medicaid expansion states—John Kasich of Ohio, Rick Snyder … Read More
If you’re poor and you want to keep your health insurance, you may have to go to work. That’s the message from Republican lawmakers who Monday night released a series of changes to their plan to overhaul the Affordable Care … Read More
It’s time to take control of Medicaid before it takes control of us. Unless we act — and there is little evidence that we will — Medicaid increasingly becomes another mechanism by which government skews spending toward the old and … Read More
A new report shows more doctors accepting Medicaid patients in the fourth year of coverage under the Affordable Care Act, which the U.S. House of Representatives this week slated to vote on the law’s replacement. A little more than half, … Read More
A purchasing director of Child Protective Services has been placed on administrative leave as officials launch an investigation into a pending contract involving a nonprofit where the director’s husband works, the American-Statesman has learned.It’s the second time Frianita Wilson has … Read More
United States Attorney G. F. “Pete” Peterman, III, announces that Dr. Stanley B. Marable, DDS, age 55, a dentist from Valdosta, Georgia, was sentenced March 16, 2017 to serve twenty-seven (27) months in Federal prison for Healthcare Fraud followed by … Read More
A top Medicaid official is skipping a planned appearance at the South by Southwest festival this weekend after criticizing the GOP plan to repeal Obamacare. Andrey Ostrovsky was scheduled to appear at the music and technology festival on Saturday. However, … Read More
Hours after she was sworn in, the Trump administration’s top official for Medicaid and her boss dispatched a letter to the nation’s governors, urging states to alter the insurance program for the nation’s poor by imposing insurance premiums, charging them … Read More
Can you imagine a Texas Medicaid budget half of what it was last year? Is it possible for Medicaid patients to get a next-day appointment with their doctor? What if Austin, rather than Washington, controlled “Texas Medicaid”? Texas, can you … Read More
Full disclosure: I initially pegged this Stoneleigh residence (the very same Brant McFarlin-designed residence featured on the cover of our last issue) for this week’s “Hot Property,” but then I came across this magnificently bonkers Strait Lane estate and everything … Read More
The parents of a 14-month-old who died after a dental procedure in North Austin have filed a wrongful death lawsuit. The suit names the dentist, the dentist’s office, an anesthesiologist and the Texan Anesthesiology Association.14-month-old Daisy Lynn Torres visited Austin … Read More
COOKE COUNTY, Texas (KXII) — Sixteen people at a North Texas hospice are charged with ripping off federal taxpayers for $60 million in a Medicare fraud scheme. That includes two people from Cooke County.One is a doctor who still has … Read More
HOUSTON, TX — The owner of a medical clinic with locations in Houston and Port Arthur was sentenced this week to 33 months in federal prison after being convicted of Medicare and Medicaid fraud.Verona Spicer, 47, the owner of Elite … Read More
Medicaid Fraud Control Units delivered nearly $1.9 billion in recoveries in fiscal year 2016, according to a new data set and interactive map released Monday by federal officials. The data and the map, put out by the Office of Inspector … Read More
The Government Accountability Office recently issued a pair of reports within days of one another critical of how the Medicaid program gathers data and screens its provider participants. Medicaid, by far, is the leading source of payment for long-term care … Read More
AUSTIN (KXAN) — As GOP leaders unveil and move their replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act through Congress, millions of Texans will be watching. Hundreds showed up Monday to protest changes to Medicaid by making it a “block grant,” … Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Monday released their long-awaited plan for unraveling former President Barack Obama’s health care law, a package that would scale back the government’s role in helping people afford coverage and likely leave more Americans uninsured. … Read More
The chief budget writer in the Texas House on Friday proposed using $1.4 billion from the state’s savings account to pay bills coming due for a wide array of the state’s health and human services programs. The proposal from state … Read More
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate approved the confirmation of Rick Perry as the next secretary of the Department of Energy on Thursday. The vote was 62-37, and included the support of both Texans in the chamber, U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. … Read More
