Beshear, Attorneys General Petition Federal Government To Expand States’ Medicaid Fraud Authority

Earlier this week, Attorney General Andy Beshear joined with attorneys general from 36 states and the District of Columbia to send a letter urging the United States government to expand its policy regarding the use of federal funds to investigate and prosecute Medicaid abuse and neglect cases.

The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) letter was sent to the United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

Beshear said the federal government should change its policy so each state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) could use federal funds to investigate and prosecute a wider range of Medicaid abuse and neglect cases, including those that occur in the home.

Beshear said his office’s MFCU currently investigates and prosecutes Medicaid provider fraud, resident abuse complaints in Medicaid-funded health care facilities, and receives and reviews abuse and neglect complaints through the Elder Abuse Hotline.

The rule change would allow Beshear’s MFCU, along with other state’s units, to handle the investigation and prosecution of Medicaid providers who provide their services in non-institutional settings.

“Kentucky’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is working hard to protect Kentucky senior citizens and our most vulnerable,” Beshear said. “By changing out-of-date federal regulations, my office will have broader authority to directly help those suffering from abuse and prosecute their abusers.”

Beshear said statistics cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest that one in 10 persons living at home, age 65 and older, will become a victim of abuse. The CDC figures also suggest that most elder abuse is not ever detected, with one study concluding that for every case of elder abuse detected or reported, 23 more remain unknown.

For these reasons, the attorneys general assert in the letter, “…the current strict federal limitations on states’ ability to use MFCU assets to investigate abuse and neglect are outdated, arbitrarily restrict our ability to protect Medicaid beneficiaries from abuse and neglect as Congress intended, and should be replaced or eliminated.”

NAAG offered two changes to current federal regulations:

• Allow each state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Units federal funds to be used to investigate and prosecute abuse and neglect of Medicaid beneficiaries in non-institutional settings (i.e. home health care).
• Allow use of MFCU federal funds to freely screen or review all complaints or reports of whatever type, in whatever setting.

Beshear has made protecting Kentucky senior citizens one of his office’s core missions.

Upon taking office, one of the first steps Beshear took was to expand Kentucky’s Elder Abuse Hotline to 24/7 to help ensure seniors are protected both day and night.

To report any instances of patient abuse, neglect or exploitation to the Attorney General’s Elder Abuse Hotline call, 877-228-7384.