Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost pledges to stop any Medicaid fraud

Anyone who engages in Medicaid fraud in Ohio will be prosecuted and won’t abuse the system anymore, Attorney General Dave Yost vowed as a potentially multi-billion-dollar fraud scandal that has engulfed Minnesota appears to be spreading to the Buckeye State.

Newsweek reported that more than a dozen Medicaid providers in Ohio have been accused of fraud. According to the report, eight were indicted in October for “phantom billing,” and nine were charged in November.

In criticizing the people engaging in such fraud, Yost said that “Medicaid fraud may be a financial crime, but it comes at a human cost.”

“Cheating Medicaid earns you nothing but a court date and a criminal record,” Yost said, according to the news source. “We’re working hard for Ohioans to recover ill-gotten gains and bring fraudsters to justice.

“Medicaid fraud is both a crime and a moral offense,” Yost said, according to WKYC. “It steals from the vulnerable and undermines our values as a society.”

He also threatened people who are willing to commit this kind of crime in the future, saying they will be caught and brought to justice.

“Would-be thieves ought to think twice before setting their sights on Medicaid dollars,” Yost said, WKYC reported. “Our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is always on the lookout for sticky-fingered criminals to bring to justice.”

Whistleblowers and conservative media outlets began raising concerns about what they describe as widespread fraud tied to Somali-run programs in Ohio and Minnesota. They warned that existing criminal cases may be just the tip of an iceberg.

Following a viral video from an independent journalist, federal authorities began intensifying their investigations into fraud allegations in Minnesota. One of the whistleblowers allegedly said that “massive fraud is happening in plain sight” within Somali-led social service and welfare-related operations in Ohio.

Mehek Cooke, an Ohio attorney and conservative commentator, told Fox News that fraud scandals in Minnesota are “just the tip of the spear.”

“They’re just rubberstamping a lot of these,” she said. “And then that same individual, a week later, who’s supposed to be bedridden, is all over social media, whether they’re out dancing at a party or something like that. So, the symptoms aren’t really adding up at the end of the day.”

The whistleblower, with direct knowledge of government-funded programs, also said that, despite repeated warnings, authorities have been slow to act.

“We have entrusted states to look at the funding and to allocate it to build programs, to build rules and regulations,” Cooke added, according to the Fox News report. “But unfortunately, in states like Ohio, it is being infiltrated and broken down because you don’t actually have independent assessments with not only doctors but somebody at the Department of Medicaid coming in.”

Republican lawmakers have also called on the state to start unannounced inspections of daycares and specifically targeting those in the Columbus area. Daycares are another area where allegations of possible fraud have surfaced.