Media

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Rep. Tony Dale, R-Cedar Park, has filed House Bill 3108 relating to the collection of unpaid tolls. KXAN has learned the bill, filed on Wednesday, will hold both the Texas Department of Transportation and its vendor, Xerox, … Read More

AUSTIN – The Texas Senate’s top budget writer on Monday proposed sharply limiting the use of the popular and controversial Cooperative Contracts purchasing program, signaling that a promised tightening of restrictions for outsourcing by state agencies may be even more … Read More

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. State officials would have to follow certain procedures before cutting off government funding for health care providers suspected of Medicaid fraud or overbilling under a measure passed Tuesday by the New Mexico Senate. The legislation sponsored by Senate … Read More

AUSTIN — The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has ruled that the state does not have to release public records related to a scandal over a $110 million no-bid Medicaid fraud detection contract because doing so would interfere … Read More

AUSTIN — The Texas health commission’s new inspector general has brought with him a team of aides from the private sector, ushering in a new era of leadership at the embattled agency in charge of rooting out waste, fraud and … Read More

A new report out from the GAO suggests that state IT systems may not be up to snuff when it comes to judging Medicaid eligibility. The March 2 report says that even while some states have recently updated Medicaid Management … Read More

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently issued an interesting decision concerning the definition of “referral” in the context of federal anti-kickback laws. See U.S. v. Patel, No. 14–2607, 2015 WL 527549 (7th Cir. 2015).  In … Read More

(Tribune News Service) — The popular state purchasing program that played a role in a $110 million no-bid contract now engulfed in scandal is likely to be revamped during this year’s legislative session, officials predicted this week. “We’re going to … Read More

(Bloomberg) — New York state is seeking to extend a contract with Computer Sciences Corp. to run its Medicaid computer system because a deal for Xerox Corp. to take over the program is stalled. The length of the extension is … Read More

The new chief watchdog for the embattled Texas Health and Human Services Commission told lawmakers Monday he plans to right the department rocked by a contracting scandal by focusing not just on Medicaid and food stamp fraud, but all types … Read More

AUSTIN – Former Texas Ethics Commission Director David Reisman has joined the Texas Health and Human Services Commission as chief ethics officer. "I created this position to help increase our emphasis on ethical behavior," said HHSC Executive Commissioner Kyle Janek. … Read More

DOVER, Del. (AP) – Legislative budget writers grilled Delaware Medicaid officials Wednesday on delays in a program aimed at reducing waste, fraud and abuse, and about the lack of access by thousands of Medicaid enrollees to the state’s only children’s … Read More

Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—February 24, 2015. A Miami man pleaded guilty today to health care fraud charges in connection with a $5 million scheme to defraud Medicare. Angel M. Mirabal, 62, of Miami, Florida, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to … Read More

Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman and the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor (OIFP) announced that a 79-year-old woman was indicted today for allegedly stealing approximately $214,000 from an account she managed on behalf of her elderly cousin, using … Read More

February 20, 2015 — A Texas dentist has won a defamation lawsuit against a former office manager who had accused the dentist of improper billing practices.Texas dentist Sweeta Walia, DMD, of Premier Family Dental of Plano, won a judgment against … Read More

February 20, 2015 — CSHM, the owner of the Small Smiles dental chain that was excluded from the Medicaid program last year, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District … Read More

AUSTIN — The drunken-driving trial of a former Texas health commission lawyer has been rescheduled for April, once again delaying a high-stakes and hotly anticipated test for a man who recently became infamous as part of a state contracting scandal. … Read More

AUSTIN – Fighting for his job after weeks of revelations about contracting irregularities and questionable tuition payments, Texas health commissioner Kyle Janek publicly apologized during a Wednesday legislative hearing in which state senators took turns angrily asking why they should … Read More

Earlier this month, the Texas Tribune’s Terri Langford had a great story about a couple of $2,800 chairs that former Health and Human Services Commission lawyer Jack Stick ordered for himself and Doug Wilson, his old boss at the Office … Read More

INDIANAPOLIS — Prosecutors have struck plea agreements with six former employees of a central Indiana dental clinic in connection with a Medicaid fraud investigation. The Herald Bulletin reports (http://bit.ly/19sGDsv ) dentist Paul Pangallo faces a March 30 sentencing hearing after … Read More

HOUSTON—Aliksandr Beketav, 53, Mikhail Shiforenko, 43, Alexsandr Voronov, 46, and Daniela Gozes-Wagner, 32, have been arrested following the return of a federal indictment alleging a health care fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. … Read More

AUSTIN – Two months after a massive no-bid contract erupted in scandal, eventually forcing four Texas health officials to resign, state senators finally got a chance Thursday to grill the first nominee that Gov. Greg Abbott has picked to help … Read More

Three years ago, when the Texas Health and Human Services Commission wanted software that investigators in its Office of Inspector General could use to track down Medicaid fraud, it asked the federal government to foot most of the $20 million bill. In its … Read More

Gone are the sales quota-like performance standards imposed by Jack Stick, the embattled former general counsel of Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission. And the agency is still debating what to do with the $2,800 black leather executive chair he … Read More

AUSTIN, TEXAS (Texas House of Representatives) – After Speaker Straus released committee assignments last Wednesday, Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, Chairman of the House Committee on Human Services, began work with his nine member committee setting the first hearing date for … Read More

AUSTIN – Leah Rayne just wants her job back.The former welfare recipient, who spent 20 years rising through the ranks at Texas’s health agency, found herself thrust into the news last summer after being fired for allegedly leaking confidential information … Read More

AUSTIN — There are a few doctors in the Texas Legislature, but the state Capitol is not the place to go for medical attention.Yet, along with public education and transportation funding, health care is expected to get lots of attention … Read More

AUSTIN — Now that House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the presiding officer of the Senate, have made their respective committee appointments, the heavy lifting begins in the Texas Legislature.For Rep. Four Price and his colleagues in … Read More

Over the past decade, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission has bungled several major contracts that totaled nearly $2 billion, and despite public blowups and calls for reform, problems persist in part because of a lack of accountability in … Read More

AUSTIN – Texas health officials last year used the firing of the state’s contractor for processing Medicaid claims to justify giving a no-bid “emergency” deal for more money to a company whose lobbying team included several former appointees of then-Gov. … Read More

Allegations of double billing and unlicensed administration of a drug were behind the search warrant executed by the Florida Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Unit at Churchill Dentistry in Ocala. An affidavit filed in support of the warrant relies on information … Read More

AUSTIN – Texas health officials last year used the firing of the state’s contractor for processing Medicaid claims to justify giving a no-bid “emergency” deal for more money to a company whose lobbying team included several former appointees of then-Gov. … Read More

HHSC has just issued this report. We haven’t looked at it. .

McALLEN — The owner of a McAllen ambulance company pleaded guilty Tuesday to forging documents and submitting more than $600,000 in false claims to federal and state health care programs. Frank Gonzalez, 32, appeared before U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa, … Read More

by Edgar Walters, The Texas Tribune Amid scrutiny of how the state’s largest health agency has awarded contracts to private vendors, state lawmakers said Wednesday they had “lost confidence” in the office of the agency that investigates fraud.  At the Senate … Read More

Members of the state Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday criticized the Department of Information Resources, the tech contracting hub that was used to broker an unchecked, no-bid deal with 21CT, the target of state and federal investigations.The Health and Human … Read More

HOUSTON—William Owuama, 55, and Marla Owuama, 47, of Houston, have entered guilty pleas to charges related to a healthcare fraud scheme in which they billed Medicare for more than $9 million, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. William Owuama was the … Read More

Attorneys for Austin tech firm 21CT, at the center of a no-bid state contract scandal, will depose the company’s former lobbyist about comments he made to the American-Statesman, which fueled concerns that 21CT had been inappropriately awarded a multimillion dollar-Medicaid … Read More

First the breakup, then the requisite division of property. Among the official belongings of Jack Stick, former general counsel for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, is one black leather executive chair — high-backed with a five-star wood capped … Read More

Vermont’s top health care official says there are people receiving Medicaid benefits who are not eligible, but officials are not sure how widespread the problem is. An internal memo provided to VTDigger and the firsthand account of a local tax … Read More