The federal mobilization to stop fraud against taxpayers
The Wall Street Journal reports on Vice President JD Vance’s work warning states to comply with Medicaid antifraud laws or risk losing federal funding. The administration is also preparing audits of state Medicaid Fraud Control Units, the watchdogs charged with rooting out abuse.
Will anything change? Is this ultimately just another threat? Will enforcement be fair in both red and blue states? These are all good questions and worth watching as Vance’s anti-fraud task force moves forward.
Fraud in programs like Medicaid is demoralizing because it tells taxpayers their sacrifices don’t matter and that their government has little interest in minding their pocketbooks. In this case, it appears that many of the anti-fraud units in the states are asleep at the wheel. In the part of the press conference I watched, Vice President Vance specifically called out California, but the WSJ also mentions Florida as a significant problem when it comes to ghost billing the government for medical equipment supplies.
States that accept federal Medicaid dollars have an obligation to protect both the vulnerable people the program serves and the taxpayers who fund it. Anti-fraud enforcement is not contrary to compassion; it helps these programs remain viable, a point V.P. Vance emphasized.
And, of course, the larger principle is sound: federalism cannot mean taking the money while evading any accountability.
Taxpayer stewardship is one of the basic habits of good government, and we are failing at both the state and federal levels. At least the federal government is finally taking steps that could provide consequences for widespread fraud. Ultimately, nothing will motivate a state with high fraud like actually losing funding.
—Ray Nothstine
— The Federalism Beat