The nationally-known Houston law firm of Hilder and Associates has been writing about their concerns for due process rights and Medicaid fraud investigations for a few years now.
In November 2011, Texas Lawyer published an article entitled “Blurred Barriers in Civil, Criminal Medicaid Investigations,” by Philip Hilder and Paul Creech. The article details their firm’s concerns for Medicaid providers due process rights.
The article in part states: “In an effort to control Medicaid costs and at the same time combat abuse, the OAG and the Texas Legislature have created a system that has encouraged — and even required — the intertwinement of civil and criminal investigations to the detriment of the proper administration of criminal justice, which likely violates Fifth Amendment due-process limitations.”
“A civil administrative investigation may act as a Trojan horse for a parallel criminal investigation by gaining the
cooperation of an unsuspecting criminal target who would otherwise have invoked protections against self-incrimination. Attorneys should be familiar with the way federal agencies addressing Medicaid interact and should understand the system has blurred what should be clearly demarcated barriers between civil and criminal investigations of health-care providers.”
The full article can be read here.
Hilder has also published a paper on the subject on their website.
Texas Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, A Trojan Horse
By: Philip H. Hilder and Paul Creech