166 Hours a Day
2012-05-25 - by
WRAL News received a tip about Medicaid fraud in Governor Perdue’s mammoth Department of Health and Human Services, then spent weeks pouring over stacks of Medicaid bills, then reported the department had run amok again. For instance:
WRAL found one licensed therapist, a psychologist, whose name was “linked to 22,984 hours of therapy last year, even though there are only 8760 hours in a year.” The same therapist billed the state for working 166 hours in a single day. And during one 17 day stretch billed the state for over 100 hours each day.
Last fall Lanier Cansler, the lobbyist Governor Perdue picked to head DHHS, resigned after an audit found one of his former clients (which had received a $250 million contract to write a new Medicaid Claims processing program) was $230 million over budget. But, now, DHHS says it has good news to report: It has another, new, different, better computer program to root out fraud.
Of course, there’s still a fundamental question: Why does a state official need a computer program to figure out no one can work 166 hours in a day?
166 Hours a Day
2012-05-25/
WRAL News received a tip about Medicaid fraud in Governor Perdue’s mammoth Department of Health and Human Services, then spent weeks pouring over stacks of Medicaid bills, then reported the department had run amok again. For instance:
WRAL found one licensed therapist, a psychologist, whose name was “linked to 22,984 hours of therapy last year, even though there are only 8760 hours in a year.” The same therapist billed the state for working 166 hours in a single day. And during one 17 day stretch billed the state for over 100 hours each day.
Last fall Lanier Cansler, the lobbyist Governor Perdue picked to head DHHS, resigned after an audit found one of his former clients (which had received a $250 million contract to write a new Medicaid Claims processing program) was $230 million over budget. But, now, DHHS says it has good news to report: It has another, new, different, better computer program to root out fraud.
Of course, there’s still a fundamental question: Why does a state official need a computer program to figure out no one can work 166 hours in a day?