Back on October 15th, 2012, now more than a year ago, Texas Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation John Scott testified before the House Committee on Public Health in the Capitol. TDMR has just reviewed the archived video from the Texas legislature website.
Scott’s testimony was part of an update on actions taken by the HHSC Office of the Inspector General and the Office of the Attorney General on reports of massive Medicaid fraud allegedly perpetrated by dentists and orthodontists in Texas. Also testifying were Douglas Wilson and Jack Stick from OIG and Chris Traylor from HHSC.
Part of Scott’s testimony dealt with actions taken by the OAG’s Civil Medicaid Fraud Unit. Scott outlines how the unit’s process is driven by whistleblower complaints which then need to be investigated. Then he tells the committee that his department has over 360 pending whistleblower cases and that 20 of them relate to dental and orthodontic Medicaid providers.
However, those 20 cases name over 400 individual dentists and orthodontists as defendants. He then says all cases are being reviewed.
The fact that the first word in all of these statements is \\\’FRAUD\\\’ eliminates the thought and possibility of \\\’due process\\\’.
There is never any statement made like \\\”FRAUD\\\’ against providers by state agencies but rather terms like \\\’mistake\\\’, miscalculation\\\’ are used.
After all \\\’why would any state agency defraud the public..? Why then would any provider be incapable of making a mistake and therefore only have a criminal intent…?