Medicaid Fraud Raids Hit Over a Dozen NYC Adult Day Care Centres
At least two people were arrested on Staten Island as federal and state agents raided more than a dozen adult day care centres across NYC for Medicaid fraud.
Arrests and raids at NYC adult day care centres in Medicaid fraud sweep
At least two people were arrested on Staten Island after federal and state investigators raided more than a dozen adult day care centres across Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, abc7ny.com reports. The targets are operators accused of billing Medicaid for clients who either never attended or were already dead.
The Staten Island arrests centred on a family-run operation, the result of a prolonged investigation. The family faces charges of submitting fraudulent Medicaid claims for services that were never rendered to clients — some of whom had died.
Other locations across the three boroughs were also searched, some under court-ordered warrants and others issued written warning notices. Two of those facilities received a direct visit from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Dr. Mehmet Oz.
The broader inquiry involves the FBI, the IRS, the Department of Health and Human Services and several New York state agencies, as well as the NYPD. Federal officials were scheduled to present details of the operation at a Washington news conference on Thursday, which coincided with an announcement offering financial rewards to tipsters with information on Medicaid fraud nationwide.
New York State had already been examining its Social Adult Day Care programme — known as SADC — a system that had previously drawn the attention of Dr. Oz. Governor Kathy Hochul stated at a Tuesday press conference that she had personally asked Oz to assist in identifying abuse within the programme.
The state's investigation spans more than 100 taxpayer-funded service providers "suspected of involvement in potential fraud or illegal activity," Hochul said in a subsequent statement. How many have been confirmed as committing fraud was not immediately clear.
The raids add to mounting pressure on the state's health care oversight record. In June, the Justice Department sued the New York State Health Department, accusing it of failing to adequately monitor the company running the state's $11 billion home health care programme. Hochul dismissed that lawsuit at the time as politically motivated.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)