Golden Pushes Legislation To Reduce Medicaid Fraud

Hopefully this will help heal the economy a little bit.

If you’ve ever cogitated on the injustices of people being eligible for free health insurance while living in million dollar mansions and driving an Infiniti G37 Cabrio, as you work two jobs to make ends meet and pay a monthly king’s ransom for health insurance, wonder no more.

State Senator Martin J. Golden and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis are teaming up later this month to introduce legislation that they hope will rip the carpet out from beneath greedy goons committing Medicaid fraud and abuse, which Malliotakis says are “some of the largest contributing factors to our bloated and inefficient Medicaid system.”

Golden, a member of the Senate Health Committee, explains: “The 2009 New York State Budget included language that repealed the resource asset test for Medicaid eligibility which was instrumental in preventing people from hiding their resources. Since we have eliminated this step in the screening process, we have heard of more people who have been able to get free health insurance for their families, while living in million dollar homes and driving luxury automobiles.”

The legislation would reinstate the use of the resource asset test for Medicaid eligibility as well as include a separate provision that will reinstate the initial personal interview upon the filing of an application for Medicaid.

Golden continued: “In this economic climate of budget cuts, New York has no room to waste not even a single dollar. The United States Government Accountability office estimated that in 2010, Medicaid fraud in New York State cost taxpayers $5 billion. There is no doubt that this was simply a poor policy making decision that needs to be corrected immediately. This legislation will again require screenings as part of the Medicaid eligibility review, so that the system can provide the benefits only for those most in need.”

Malliotakis stated: “As costs continue to skyrocket, we simply cannot afford to allow billions of dollars disappear as a result of waste and fraud within the Medicaid system. The Resource Asset Test is a proven, effective tool to combat these problems, and I urge my colleagues in the Legislature to adopt this measure immediately so that not one more cent is waste.”