{"id":100347,"date":"2018-03-29T07:34:55","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T12:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=100347"},"modified":"2018-03-29T07:34:55","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T12:34:55","slug":"ohio-joins-other-states-in-medicaid-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/03\/29\/ohio-joins-other-states-in-medicaid-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio joins other states in Medicaid suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n

COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, along with a bipartisan coalition of 48 other state attorneys general and the National Association of Attorneys General, has expressed support for a bill that would ease federal restrictions that limit states\u2019 ability to investigate and prosecute the abuse and neglect of Medicaid beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis change is vitally important because it eliminates the blinders current law places on Medicaid Fraud Control Units\u2019 ability to detect, investigate, and prosecute cases of abuse and neglect of Medicaid patients,\u201d wrote Attorney General DeWine and the other attorneys general in their letter.\u00a0\u201cSince the current statute was enacted decades ago, substantial growth has occurred in home and community-based services, office-based services, transportation services, and other settings that are neither health care facilities or board and care facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill, H.R. 3891, introduced by U.S. Representatives Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) and Peter Welch (D-Vermont), would expand the authority of state Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MCFUs), most of which are housed within state attorney general offices, to detect, investigate, and prosecute Medicaid patient abuse in non-institutional settings.<\/p>\n

Under current law, MFCUs may investigate and prosecute patient abuse and neglect only if it occurs in a health care facility or in some circumstances, in a board and care facility. This means other cases of abuse and neglect of Medicaid patients — such as in a home health care setting — currently fall outside the unit\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n

The attorneys general also stressed the importance of expanding this authority in light of the national opioid epidemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider, for example, a situation in which a Medicaid beneficiary in a home or community-based setting is provided prescription opioid painkillers in an unlawful manner, resulting in death or great bodily harm to the patient,\u201d the attorneys general added in the letter. \u201cUnder current law, although the patient harm caused by the distribution of those opioids may have been criminal, our MFCUs would be hampered or prevented from investigating or prosecuting the case of patient abuse because it occurred in a setting other than a health care facility or board and care facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

A copy of the\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0of support sent to the bill\u2019s sponsors is available on the Ohio Attorney General\u2019s website at\u00a0www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Submitted information COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, along with a bipartisan coalition of 48 other state attorneys general and the National Association of Attorneys General, has expressed support for a bill that would ease federal restrictions that limit states\u2019 ability to investigate and prosecute the abuse and neglect of Medicaid beneficiaries. \u201cThis change […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-10 03:46:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}