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Clay’s Weekly Medicaid RoundUp: Week of November 4th, 2016

Today is Veteran’s Day. In honor of those who have served in our nation’s military, please take a moment to read about the brave men and women who protect us. I have taken stories of fallen servicemen and servicewomen from the site thefallen.militarytimes.com. This selection is in no way meant to slight veterans who did not fall in the line of duty, or who fell earlier this year (the LinkedIn character limits do not allow more than a few to be shown). Please pray for the widows, children, parents and friends of those so recently fallen.

 

Staff Sargent Matthew C. Lewellen. Killed November 4, 2016 in Jordan (7 days ago). Green Beret, 5th Special Forces Group. Hometown: Kirksville, MO. Age 27.

 

Staff Sargent Kevin J. McEnroe. Killed November 4, 2016 in Jordan (7 days ago). Green Beret, 5th Special Forces Group. Hometown: Tuscon, AZ. Age 30.

 

Staff Sargent James F. Moriarty. Killed November 4, 2016 in Jordan (7 days ago). Green Beret, 5th Special Forces Group. Hometown: Kerrville, TX. Age 27.

 

Captain Andrew D. Byers. Killed November 3, 2016 in Afghanistan (8 days ago). Company B, 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). Hometown: Rolesville, NC. Age 30.

 

Sargent First Class Ryan A. Gloyer. Killed November 3, 2016 in Afghanistan (8 days ago). Company B, 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). Hometown: Greensville, PA. Age 34.

 

Staff Sargent Adam Thomas. Killed October 4, 2016 in Afghanistan (38 days ago). Company B, 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group. Hometown: Takoma Park, Maryland. Age 31.

 

Aviation Boatswainís Mate (Fuels) Airman Devon M. Faulkner. Died September 20, 2016 (52 days ago). Assigned to USS Wasp, forward deployed in the central Mediterranean Sea. Home: North Carolina. Age 24.

 

First Lieutenant Jeffrey D. Cooper. Died September 10, 2016 in Kuwait (62 days ago). Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. Hometown: Mill Creek, Washington. Age 25.

 

Staff Sargent Matthew V. Thompson. Killed August 23, 2016 in Afghanistan (80 days ago). 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne). Hometown: Irvine, CA. Age 28.

 

Staff Sargent Christopher A. Wilbur. Died August 12, 2016 in Afghanistan (91 days ago). 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Hometown: Granite City, IL. Age 36.

 

Lieutenant Colonel Flando E. Jackson. Died August 4, 2016 (99 days ago). 194th Wing, Camp Murray, Washington National Guard. Hometown: Lansing, MI. Age 45.

 

First Lieutenant Anais A. Tobar. Died July 18, 2016 in Southwest Asia (116 days ago). 4th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Seymour Johnson Airforce Base. Hometown: Miami, FL. Age 25.

 

To any veterans reading the roundup today, thank you for your decision to protect me, my family and my way of life. Thank you!

To any of the fallen, you will certainly have much more joy at the feet of Jesus than reading my silly little RoundUp. Thank you.

To Paw Paw (Sargent Major Ott Cecil Farris, Marine veteran of WWII, Korea and Vietnam)- I miss you. We all do. We are all so grateful for what you did for us so many years ago. And we all look forward to seeing you again.

To Private William Robert Caddy of Quincy, MA, thank you for jumping on that grenade on Iwo Jima on March 3, 1945. You saved my grandfather’s life (and the life of another Marine pinned down under Japanese sniper fire). It was thus possible for my father to be born 4 years after that, me to be born 28 years after that and my first child to be born 31 years after that. Your sacrifice upon that grenade has had impact for 61 years and counting. You are in no way forgotten and never will be. I will tell my children of you and they theirs.

Thank a veteran today. Thank one tomorrow. Pray for one today. Pray for one tomorrow. Buy one lunch. Pull your head up from the cesspool of the 24 hour news cycle and do something to honor them.

And each and every day- Praise God you were born in a country worth dying for.

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Clay’s Weekly Medicaid RoundUp: Week of October 31st, 2016

Soundtrack for today’s RoundUp pessimist readers- http://bit.ly/2eH0oQa

Or you can click the one for optimist readers –http://bit.ly/2eGXWZM

 

Millions in Academic funding Goes Away- I must admit even I haven’t seen this happen in Medicaid. VT has taken $4M from academic medical centers and given it to family doctors. The redistribution was required in a bill passed last session, and appears to be aimed at maintaining the higher primary care payment rates ACA made possible for 2 years back in 2012-2014.

(Illinois) Medicaid Again Gets Allocation increase- Whatever you think of The Good Guvnr’ Brandstad’s managed care strategy, you have to give him props for stick-to-it-ness. When the press just won’t stop criticizing your decision to move to managed care, and attack you for 2 years with every story they can? Add $33M more to the MCO budget this year and tell those journalists to shove it. Brandstad claims the additional spending is possible because managed care has been even more efficient than predicted, and he is still on track to deliver the $110M in annual savings he promised.

(Virginia) Medicaid Annual costs Go up Again- New numbers out from a VA budget groups shows FY 2017 going up $281M. That’s a 7% increase in Medicaid spending over last year. This upward adjustment comes roughly one year after the most recent update to the VA spending forecast, which also showed staggering increases (and a $1.5B budget gap). Can anyone guess what the go-to solution being touted by The Good Guvn’r McAuliffe is?

Managing Affordable (care act’s perception) Goes Awry- It’s just gotten so very hard to pretend like ACA is successful at doing anything besides reducing the uninsured rate. And somehow, John Q. Public has caught on that even that is not so impressive for a policy that forces people to get insurance via penalties. For easy reference, I have placed a few links to the most relevant stories to come out in the last week or so here, here, and here. To me, the funny thing is that ACA really just decreased access for all the people that already had insurance (via higher deductibles that have a clear cooling effect on seeking care). Looks like all the king’s horses (pundits) and all the king’s men (whackjob healthcare economists) couldn’t put poor ACA back together again. I would write more in depth analyses, but it is considered impolite/impolitik/crimethink in our little healthcare world to do so.

 Managed (care) Assessment Gets Adjusted- States that rely heavily on taxing MCOs to deal with budget boo-boos are struggling under the new federal rules that require they broaden (tax more types of managed care entities besides MCOs) or eliminate the revenue stream – good LORD I lost the verb in here somewhere. Wait, nevermind- its just a few words after “boo-boos.” Anyway, they are struggling. Ohio is a good example, with one county standing to lose $20M in annual funding. Kasich is promising a fix but not a lot of details yet. Some predict he could mimic what PA’s Good Guvn’r Wolf did last year, implementing a $13 pmpm “assessment” on all MCOs. So basically, use a different word for tax to keep the money flowing.

LOTS OF OTHER THINGS THAT JUST WOULDN’T FIT – I missed deadline for last week’s RoundUp, so the twitter feed is especially full this week. News from this week and last on there, including lots of fraud stories.

 

That’s it for this week. As always, please send me a note with your thoughts to clay@mostlymedicaid.com or give me a buzz at 919.727.9231. Get outside (go vote on Tuesday! The founding fathers bravely rejected the oppressive, corrupt rule of the elites of their day, and you can too) and keep running the race (you know who you are).

****

FULL, FREE newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ep81Y . News that didn’t make it and sources for those that did: twitter @mostlymedicaid . Trystero: Pai enviou seu Fillo para salvar o mundo

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Medicaid Industry Who’s Who Series: Sara Hall

Sara Hall is a featured panelist for the upcoming Indiana State Medicaid Spotlight Webinar on November 18th. RESERVE your seat today!

 

Medicaid Who’s Who: Sara Hall – HIP Employer Link program director at the Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning

 1.  What segment of the industry are you currently involved?

A: I work at Indiana Medicaid on the policy side.

 2.  What is your current position and with what organization?

A: I am the HIP Employer Link program director at the Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning in Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration (whew, that’s a mouthful!)

 3.  How many years have you been in the Medicaid industry?

A:  I have been at Indiana Medicaid for a year and a half.  Prior to this, I worked as a Navigator assisting clients at a Behavioral Health Center which is where I first starting working with Medicaid programs and understanding their complexities from a member perspective.

 4.  What is your focus/passion? (Industry related or not)

A:  I am really focused on all Americans having access to quality, affordable healthcare.  Probably sounds like a stock answer, but after working with people as a Navigator I got a look into peoples’ lives.  This was especially true when the ACA was passed and it took Indiana an extra year to get approval for HIP 2.0.  So there was a year when a lot of low income Hoosiers simply fell into the “coverage gap.”  I had the opportunity to see people before and after our alternative Medicaid expansion.  Healthcare really changes lives and I feel privileged to be a part of that.  But, as this audience knows, it doesn’t always work perfectly or as smoothly as it should.  My passion is to continue to make improvements to existing systems and/or help create new systems so that all lives can be improved by healthcare access.

 5.  What is the top item on your “bucket list?”

A: Traveling the Tran-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Beijing.

 6.  What do you enjoy doing most with your personal time?

A:  My 14-year-old daughter is my primary focus.  We like to travel and are planning on backpacking through Belize this summer.  I also like painting, pyrography, and I am currently studying for the GRE….in between watching turn of the century British dramas on Netflix.

 7.  Who is your favorite historical figure and why?

 A: Paul Goodman, because he was a very interesting person who had very interesting ideas.

 8.  What is your favorite junk food?

A:  All of them.  But I really like candy….specifically gummy peaches and Pop Rocks.

 9.  Of what accomplishment are you most proud?

A: Career wise, it would be the development and growth of the HIP Employer Link program I am currently directing.  Personally, it is my daughter and how she is growing into a responsible, smart, bold young woman.

 10. For what one thing do you wish you could get a mulligan?

A: In the second grade, I picked my nose and ate it in front of the whole classroom.  It was a poor decision that haunted me well into third grade.

 11. What are the top 1-3 issues that you think will be important in Medicaid during the next 6 months? 

A:  1.)  Obviously, the election.  Medicaid moves at the whim of politics and it is important that programs are funded, staffed, and properly managed when there are legislative changes so that benefits are not lost or decreased for members. 

 2.)  The results of Managed Care Organizations.  Indiana has been working with managed care for a while, but those contracts got bigger with HIP 2.0.  Over the next 6 months we will start to see the results on a number of our performance measurements.  Many other states are working for MCOs for the first time and will also start seeing more results of those relationships.  It will be important for the MCOs to prove that things are working better under their management. 

 3.)  Addiction and mental health services.  The opioid epidemic has hit Indiana hard (along with many other states).  Our Medicaid programs do not always offer ways for people to gain and maintain sobriety through their current health care plans.  Indiana also has a huge gap in mental health providers in and outside of Medicaid.  If we don’t have enough doctors/counselors/case workers to help people who are suffering it will be difficult to see this epidemic decrease.

Sara Hall is a featured panelist for the upcoming Indiana State Medicaid Spotlight Webinar on November 18th. RESERVE your seat today!

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Clay’s Weekly Medicaid RoundUp: Week of October 17th, 2016

Soundtrack for today’s RoundUp pessimist readers- http://bit.ly/2dUj8v7 ( bonus song- http://bit.ly/2dUhABf )

 

Or you can click the one for optimist readers – http://bit.ly/2dUJkFR

 

RUH-RO IN OR: Looks like OR Medicaid may be un-invited to all the nice parties again (for those of you that remember the scandalous Medicaid-coverage-leads-to-worse-outcomes stories a few years back). New, long term studies have confirmed that the 40% ER spikes seen after expansion are sustained. The “pent-up demand” theories that assured us it would go down after initial uptake were proven false.

SHOW ME STATE SHOWED US THIS WEEK: Who the new MCO winners are, anyway. Centene, WellCare and UHC – Congratulations! The new contracts include a significant expansion (adding 61 counties). Aetna lost out on this one – and lost 270,000 monthly cap payments as well.

HUGE PROPS TO AMERIHEALTH CARITAS OF PA- The MCO achieved what only 14 others did nationwide – a 2016-2017 NCQA rating of 4.5. Keep up the good work!

VIRGINIA IF FOR (DEFICIT) LOVERS- VA has a $1.5B deficit, resulting in layoffs, agency cuts and other measures. Despite all this (but of course he argues because of all this), the Good Guvn’r McAuliffe is nagging/lobbying for VA to expand Medicaid again. Trot out the “but it’s free money from the federal government – they get it from the money trees in DC!” argument. Thinking people know that its not free, and it does add hundreds of millions more in the state share of Medicaid costs.

GET THOSE WAIVER APPS IN QUICK, PEOPLE- Seems like CMS is thinking there might be some sort of change that impacts federal healthcare policy happen in November? Any idea what that could be? For waiver apps that are in line with CMS desires, there is a fast track lane. Case in point- WA just got preliminary (helps us have something to latch onto post-November) approval of a new $1.5B Medicaid reform waiver. The WA deal will include monies to revamp LTC (among other things, most of them focused on shifting to value based care and out of FFS). Now if you’re KY and wanting to dial back expansion, well you’re request somehow made it to the bottom of the pile.

FARRIS’S FANTASTIC FRAUD FOLLIES– And now for everybody’s favorite paragraph. Let’s start the ticker and see who wins this week’s award. “Dr” Stanley Marable plead guilty to Medicaid dental fraud in Valdosta, GA this week. He stole $789k from GA Medicaid for tooth extractions that didn’t happen. OmniCare, the largest institutional pharmacy in the U-S of A (it’s a nationwide nursing home pharmacy) has agreed to pay back $28M to various state Medicaid programs over allegations it conspired with Abbot labs in a kickback scheme to increase Depakote sales. Robert Novy, and elder-law attorney of Brick, NJ was charged this week for defrauding clients out of $1.2M. He presented himself as an elder advocate, “helping” clients navigate Medicaid financing issues (think estate recovery), but in reality he was (allegedly) taking control of their finances and stealing their savings. OmniCare- you win this week’s award. I would make some witty quip about seeing you in orange and in jail, but it seems like more and more powerful people / corporations are above the law these days.

 

That’s it for this week. As always, please send me a note with your thoughts to clay@mostlymedicaid.com or give me a buzz at 919.727.9231. Get outside (do a rain dance for AL- we need it!) and keep running the race (you know who you are).

****

FULL, FREE newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ep81Y . News that didn’t make it and sources for those that did: twitter @mostlymedicaid . Trystero: Isä lähetti Pojan pelastaa maailman

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Medicaid Industry Who’s Who Series: Calder Lynch

Calder Lynch is a featured panelist for the upcoming Nebraska State Medicaid Spotlight Webinar on October 21st.

RESERVE your seat today!

 

Medicaid Who’s Who: Calder Lynch – Nebraska Medicaid Director

 1.  What segment of the industry are you currently involved?

A: I’m a state health policy nerd, but I like to think I work at the intersection of policy and politics – where we really can make things happen. However, my real passion and focus comes after the policy-making—at the executing and operationalizing of reforms and programs. That’s the fun stuff!

 2.  What is your current position and with what organization?

A: I am the Director of the Division of Medicaid and Long-term Care within the Department of Health and Human Services for the State of Nebraska. Put more simply, I’m the Nebraska Medicaid Director.

 3.  How many years have you been in the Medicaid industry?

A: I’ve been in my role here in Nebraska for a little over 18 months. Before this, I worked in the health care and Medicaid arena for the State of Louisiana for about six and a half years.

 4.  What is your focus/passion? (Industry related or not)

A: We’ll always have the debates about what government should and shouldn’t do, can or can’t provide–but the fact is that we are going to do something, we should do it well. Good government is non-partisan, and a well-run government is something every citizen and taxpayer deserves. And in my experience some of the most dedicated and passionate people work in the health and human services programs of the public sector. In Nebraska, we are totally rethinking and restructuring how our Medicaid program is administered – from our eligibility and MMIS systems, to our managed care programs, our policies & regulations, our staffing structure, and our contract oversight. With the right tools, planning and leadership, we can accomplish amazing things. My passion is to help create that structure and empower our team to show how effective we can be at making programs, processes, and outcomes better for the people we serve and the citizens who fund out programs.

 5.  What is the top item on your “bucket list?”

A: I am excited about our vision for modernizing the systems that support our Medicaid program and how we view our role and structure in the future. We like to talk about how we are implementing a “No MMIS” approach – where the state will no longer own or operate a claims processing system. I would love to see us completely decommission or legacy self-administered system and move to a services based architecture.

 6.  What do you enjoy doing most with your personal time?

A: I like to cook, especially for others. I really enjoy sharing a good meal that I’ve prepared, and I’ve enjoyed bringing my Cajun flavors to Nebraska. I also enjoy traveling, especially when it leads to spending time with friends and family in places that lend themselves to photography and being outdoors.

 7.  Who is your favorite historical figure and why?

 A: While not my favorite in terms of his beliefs or politics, I have always been deeply fascinated by Huey Long. As a child, I actually appeared as an extra in a TV movie about him called ‘The Kingfish.’ He is an incredible figure in American politics, and particularly for me in Louisiana history. His story is both a cautionary tale against government corruption and an interesting lesson in the roots of populism that I think continue to have influences on today’s politics.

 8.  What is your favorite junk food?

A: I’m a Louisiana native, and it’s not all that often I can get my hands on some Zapp’s Cajun Crawtator potato chips. And that’s probably a good thing!

 9.  Of what accomplishment are you most proud?

A: I think one of the most important functions of a leader and manager is the recognition and cultivation of talent. I am most proud of the team of folks we’ve assembled here in Nebraska, where we have our complete leadership team in place for the first time in a number of years. Seeing their daily successes, growth, and future potential is the most rewarding part of my job.

 10.  For what one thing do you wish you could get a mulligan?

A: One of the very first projects I was given to manage was the carve-in of pharmacy to managed care in Louisiana, coupled with the implementation of a new reimbursement methodology. We did it, and in many ways it was successful. But it was a lot of change very quickly. Looking back, I would have recommended some different policy prescriptions as it related to how the benefit would be managed in a carve-in environment (like retention of a common PDL). Sometimes the trick to implementing lasting reform is to work incrementally. I learned some important lessons that have influenced our decision-making here in Nebraska.

 11.  What are the top 1-3 issues that you think will be important in Medicaid during the next 6 months? 

 A: In the short term, the most impactful thing will be the federal leadership transition and the selection of new leadership at CMS. This will ultimately have tremendous impact on how the recent flurry of federal regulations will be implemented, like the managed care regulation and guidance around specific provisions like the IMD rule.

 Other timely things to watch will be how CMS applies the Access Rule to ongoing state plan amendments, the impact of Part B premium increases on state budgets and the expiration of the Money Follows the Person program.

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Clay’s Weekly Medicaid RoundUp: Week of October 3rd, 2016

Soundtrack for today’s RoundUp pessimist readers- http://bit.ly/2dJXQUf

 

Or you can click the one for optimist readers – http://bit.ly/2dJYwcd

 

THE TIMES THEY ARE A’CHANGIN’- CMS and OIG released a joint proposed rule (is that normal?) to update the state MFCU (funny sounding acronym re: state fraud units for those unaware- and yes we all think it sounds dirty when you pronounce it like a word) regs that are basically unchanged since 1978. The changes will align the reg with statute changes as well as with best practices. There’s a good many updates- I recommend one of the summaries from JDSupra and others (check the twitter feed).

 

CONGRATS TO NE FOR APPROVAL FOR HERITAGE HEALTH- NE has gotten approval from CMS to launch its innovative integrated care approach to managed care. The state already has 80% of bennies in managed care – the new program will now have MCOs running admin for physical health, mental health, and Rx. Heritage Health is set to launch Jan 1.

 

KS STRUGGLING. STILL STRUGGLING- RoundUp readers and show watchers know we have been talking about the KS backlog since the summer. This week saw a new lawsuit (with a nursing home suing the state on behalf of 21 patients that could get kicked out if their apps don’t get approved and I mean fast) and new concerns expressed by legislators over a new lurking backlog. Seems the initial backlog (which is almost cleared) was actually under-reported by about 12,000 applications. From what I can tell, the 12,000 now in the cue are mostly renewal applications.

 

TN SAVING BOUCOUP BUCKS WITH EPISODE-BASED PAYMENTS- TN Medicaid moved to episode based payments in 2013 and is now able to report it saved $11M in year 1 with the value vs volume approach. Nice to see its paying off! Congrats to Brooks Daverman and team (check out the April episode of the state spotlight on the website to get a deep dive on the TN model).

 

FARRIS’S FANTASTIC FRAUD FOLLIES– And now for everybody’s favorite paragraph. Let’s start the ticker and see who wins this week’s award. Philip Esformes of Miami is charged with running a 14-year, $1B Medicaid fraud scheme. Seems he and his father used bribes and kickbacks to increase payouts to their network of nursing homes.  Katia Donnelly, a DME company owner in Huntington, NY plead guilty this week to stealing more than $2M from Medicaid. Francis Kimaru and 2 others running Compassionate Homecare (Worcester,MA) were indicted this week on $800,000 worth of Medicaid fraud charges related to unnecessary services and services not authorized by a physician. Chanda Hall of Baker, LA was sentenced this week for using her home care company (Empowering Care Services, LLC) to steal $1M from LA Medicaid. How did Chanda get caught? When paramedics were sent to the home of a patient who had been supposedly receiving services from Empowering Care, but had been in fact abandoned a while back. Paramedics reported the patient was “severely malnourished and neglected to the point where (her) own fingernails had grown until they were curving around and growing back into the flesh of her palm.” Once patient zero was discovered, the larger fraud was identified. Medicaid fraud has very real consequences for vulnerable patients, people. You can take your “oh, but its just a drop in the bucket” and shove it. Chanda, you’re not the biggest this week, but in the spirit of the upcoming Halloween/Election season, you win on evil factor alone. I pray your jailors take better care of you than you did those entrusted into your care.

That’s it for this week. As always, please send me a note with your thoughts to clay@mostlymedicaid.com or give me a buzz at 919.727.9231. Get outside (make some sort of hay/pumpkin decoration- you know you want to) and keep running the race (you know who you are).

****

FULL, FREE newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ep81Y

 

News that didn’t make it and sources for those that did: twitter @mostlymedicaid*sinugo ng Ama ang Anak upang iligtas ang sanlibutan*

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Clay’s Weekly Medicaid RoundUp: Week of September 26th, 2016

Soundtrack for today’s RoundUp pessimist readers-  http://bit.ly/2d0HUcn

 

Or you can click the one for optimist readers – http://bit.ly/2d0J3AE (in which Ginger Rogers sings a verse in pig latin in 1933)

 

THE LAST FRONTIER AND ACS (ER, XEROX) SETTLE THEIR DIFFERENCES- The original complaints centered around Xerox not getting provider payments out the door fast enough (and some payment errors, too), and the state wanted $47M in damages. The settlement announced this week landed on no hard cash penalty, but instead AK will get 100,000 hours of “free” work in the deal. Shareholders do not fear – looks like the state will still pay the full contract amount for the DDI and Ops. Subscription revenues continue- Phew!

 

WE NOW HAVE A LABEL, AND ITS “CONSERVATIVE” MEDICAID EXPANSION- Looks like cost-sharing (via HSAs and optional coverage buy-ups) for health insurance bennies is now called “conservative” based on this week’s Modern Healthcare analysis of the Anthem analysis of the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP). For those unfamiliar, Anthem has about 150,000 bennies there. So they have a bit of perspective on what’s going on. According to the Anthem analysis, 70% of all Medicaid bennies chose to buy up into the “HIP Plus” option (which gets you dental and vision on top of what you get for HIP Basic). Nearly 60% of bennies with less than $230/ month income chose to buy up into Plus. And it looks like having a Plus card in your pocket has positive impacts – preventive screenings (which are covered under Basic, too) go up and ER goes down. The essential read is that when given choices for more coverage and a small cost, people choose it and it changes their behaviors. Shorthand – skin in the game.  Some establishment advocates are pooh-poohing it, saying its hurting Basic (remember the coverage is the same for everything except vision and dental), pointing fingers at MCOs to say “what are the MCOs doing to get them to more screenings and preventive visits?” No one is asking what the members are doing, of course. Back to that label in the headline. Some say “conservative” Medicaid expansion. I say “responsible” Medicaid expansion. Cue outrage, name-calling and snake-oil health economic theories that ignore basic human behavior.

 

DO-DO-DA-DO-DO [TRYING TO GET THE “WE’RE IN THE MONEY” MELODY ACROSS IN A HEADLINE]- MCOs added 3M bennies this year. Assuming an average cap across all rate cells of $200, that’s $600M more in revenue. Further assuming 2% profit, that’s another $12M added to the bottom line. Still small potatoes compared to 2015’s MCO enrollment surge of 8M, though.

 

FARRIS’S FANTASTIC FRAUD FOLLIES– And now for everybody’s favorite paragraph. Let’s start the ticker and see who wins this week’s award. Steven Schwartz of Chicago was charged with billing for $60k in personal assistance services not provided. Glenn Schabel of Long Island was sentenced this week for his role in nabbing $150M for prescription meds he then diverted to the black market (he was ordered to pay back $5.5M). First Call, a medical transport company in Buffalo, NY, agreed to pay $173k to settle allegations it got Medicaid payments for rides made by unqualified drivers. Physician’s Ambulance Services (in Cleveland, OH) basically got popped for the same thing, to the tune of $109k. Mr Schabel– you have impressed us all with the size of your pilfery. Go forth – through those iron gates over there to your left. See you in a few years.

That’s it for this week. As always, please send me a note with your thoughts to clay@mostlymedicaid.com or give me a buzz at 919.727.9231. Get outside (take a break from the 24 hour news cycle – isn’t it terrible?) and keep running the race (you know who you are).

****

FULL, FREE newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ep81Y

 

News that didn’t make it and sources for those that did: twitter @mostlymedicaid*Isa on läkitanud Poja maailma päästma*