Ohio Auditor Faber addresses fraud in testimony to the Medicaid committee

Ohio Auditor Keith Faber testified to Ohio’s Medicaid committee on Wednesday about fraud in the system, claiming that his office had previously identified more than $118 million in improper payments.

After he testified on House Bill 795, the SHIELD, or Safeguarding Healthcare Integrity through Electronic Location Data, Act, the committee members asked Faber how the fraud occurred and who should be blamed, NBC 4 reported. An amended version of the proposal would expand Ohio’s Medicaid fraud-prevention and program-integrity laws.

Faber told them that a huge government program, such as Medicaid, is destined to be abused by fraudsters, adding, however, that this is not the biggest problem in the system. According to him, waste and abuse are bigger problems that are not being properly addressed because the system is not equipped enough to deal with them.

“I think largely what you’re going to see is you’re going to see home healthcare is a problem,” he said, according to the news source. “We identified all kinds of weaknesses in home health care. I think you’re going to see some of the substance abuse treatment facilities that are going to have a problem. But the rank and file every day Medicaid recipient, Ohio’s managed care system controls for a lot of that fraud, weakness.”

Even though Republicans have been in control of the state for decades, Faber suggested that the reason why Ohio has a Medicaid problem is due to big government.

“I would argue it’s not a Democrat problem. It’s not a Republican problem. It’s a big government problem, and so, I mean, you would have to say that Mike DeWine wants Medicaid fraud. He doesn’t. He clearly doesn’t,” he said, according to the news source. “You had a Medicaid director in the last Medicaid director who frankly turned a blind eye towards a lot of the control weaknesses that have led to some of the problems.”

After The Daily Wire released its report alleging Medicaid fraud, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine pushed back, saying no fraud was alleged. After the federal government began investigating fraud in the state, DeWine admitted it existed and vowed to crack down on it, in part by signing an executive order that allows emergency Medicaid fraud measures.

Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Donald Trump administration, Dr. Mehmet Oz, defended DeWine on Tuesday, saying that he “trusts him.”

Faber, who has been the state’s auditor for seven and a half years, said that even though he audits government programs, he does not audit beneficiary fraud. If he wins the Ohio attorney general race at the end of this year, he would be overseeing the state’s Medicaid fraud enforcement unit.

Current Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who will leave his job on June 7, previously announced that over $500,000 had been stolen from the Medicaid funds by fraudsters in Ohio, adding that his and his team’s “mission remains the same: protect Medicaid dollars and hold thieves accountable.”

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