Guest Column: State Sen. George Winner

“Medicaid Under the Microscope”

ALBANY, March 8 -- In Albany this week, the recently created New York State Senate Republican Task Force on Medicaid Fraud will hold a public hearing to try to jump-start what we hope will be an aggressive, top-to-bottom effort to get a better handle on New York government’s largest single expenditure: Medicaid.

If Albany’s leaders are truly serious about getting control of runaway state spending, then this public hearing and the findings of this task force may be the most important action taking place in state government at the moment. New York spends more on Medicaid -- $50 billion annually, and rising -- than it does on education. On roads and bridges. On fighting crime. On programs and services for the aging. On, well, you name it.

There are two points to make at the outset.

First, we’re not looking for scapegoats. It’s easy to criticize “Medicaid” and I hear it all the time. But the Medicaid program, in many ways, ensures the availability of quality health care for many eligible New Yorkers who truly need it – that’s a worthwhile and meaningful goal. Medicaid plays a vital, fundamental, legitimate role in the health and well-being of millions of New York’s working families, persons with disabilities, seniors, and others.

But point No. 2 is this: the system was never intended to bankroll unscrupulous providers or dishonest recipients, and therein lies the problem. In too many other ways, New York’s Medicaid system is wasteful, inefficient, and abused. To be as straightforward as possible: the existing system leaves too many doors too wide open to the rip-offs and scams that have not just plagued the system for far too long, but that have come to define and symbolize it in regrettable ways.

Why? That’s the key question. Why can’t New York put a stop to the sensational scams and rip-offs that still characterize this system far too often? It’s time to find out.

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that as much as 10 percent of a state’s Medicaid expenses are lost to fraud. In New York, that means state taxpayers are losing more than $5 billion to Medicaid fraud. And that’s unacceptable.

So the new Task Force on Medicaid Fraud will work to find solutions.

We’ll be hearing testimony this week from a number of experts in the field, including district attorneys at the forefront of prosecuting fraud, cutting-edge corporations in the field of Medicaid oversight, and county executives on the front lines of trying to cure the system itself.

We’ll be hearing this week, for example, from Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli, who also currently serves as president of the New York State Association of Counties. There is no single local leader anywhere in New York who has done more to advance the cause of accountability, efficiency, and innovation. I look forward to this chance to showcase what can be achieved in significantly cutting costs in the $50-billion Medicaid system.

We’ll also hear from Guy Amisano, chief executive officer of the Horseheads-based Salient Corporation, on the ability of computer software designed by Salient and already in use in counties across New York, to point the way to hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars in Medicaid fraud and waste prevention.

Time is short. We need to kick this effort into high gear. It’s way past time to put in place a “zero tolerance” policy to combat the millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars being lost to Medicaid fraud and waste, and we’re going to try to show how.

Photo in text: State Senator George Winner

Schuyler County Officials

Legislature Members:

Top row (from left): Thomas Gifford, Dennis Fagan, Doris Karius, Glenn Larison

Bottom row: Michael A. Yuhasz, Barbara Halpin, Paul Marcellus, Stewart Field

Legislature Chairman

Thomas M. Gifford, 535-9517

Legislature Members:

Michael A. Yuhasz, 535-4967

Doris L. Karius, 546-5544

Barbara Halpin, 594-3683

Glenn R. Larison, 594-3385

Dennis Fagan, Tyrone

Paul Marcellus, Watkins Glen

Stewart Field, Reading Center

County Clerk: Linda Compton, 535-8133

Sheriff: William Yessman, 535-8222

Undersheriff: Breck Spaulding, 535-8222

County Treasurer: Margaret Starbuck, 535-8181

District Attorney: Joseph Fazzary, 535-8383

State, Federal Officials for Schuyler County

Sen. Charles E. Schumer

United States Senate
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3201
DC Phone: 202-224-6542
DC Fax: 202-228-3027
Email Address: http://schumer.senate.gov/webform.html

Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand

United States Senate
478 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
DC Phone: 202-224-4451
Website: http://gillibrand.senate.gov/

U.S. Rep. Eric Massa

United States House of Representatives
1208 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
DC Phone: 202-225-3161
DC Fax: 202-226-6599
Website: http://massa.house.gov/

State Senator George H. Winner, Jr. -- Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Yates, western Tompkins, Enfield, Ithaca (Town and City), Newfield, Ulysses(Trumansburg)

Room 415, Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
Phone: (518) 455-2091
Fax: (518) 426-6976
www.senate.nyssenate53.com

Assemblyman Tom O’Mara -- Chemung, Schuyler, Tioga
Room 720, Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248
Phone: (518) 455-4538
Website: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=137

Assemblyman James G. Bacalles -- Steuben, Yates
439 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248
Phone: (518) 455-5791
Website: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=136