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| Photo: Coburn Dukehart /Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism — Helu Wang and Dee J. Hall report on Republican effort to use machinery of government to harass citizens unpopular with Republicans for participating in state Medicaid-funded programs. "Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ Office of Inspector General has aggressively sought to recover money for clerical errors instead of legitimate fraud from personal care providers who help bathe, feed and clothe roughly 16,000 disabled or elderly clients," report Wang and Hall. |
Punitive state audits based on clerical errors drive caregivers out of their professions, and terrorize disabled and older people receiving humane care in their homes
Madison, Wisconsin — Gov. Scott Walker's (R) corrupt and perversely hostile use of state government has generated victims across Wisconsin.
An early Scott Walker initiative, (see Executive Order #2 (2011)), is a hysterical cry against "Waste, Fraud and Abuse" in state-administered programs that Republicans just happen to not favor, such as Medicaid serving 1.2 million Wisconsin people.
A Republican strategy uses the Republican-led Wisconsin Dept of Health Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG), (established by Gov. Scott Walker (R) in 2011), to target participants in state-administered programs, politicizing and criminalizing legitimate use.
Walker subsequently trumpets how well the dubious effort is performing in helping the tax-payer against the demonized people using FoodShare and Medicaid.
The Republican initiative mirrors a federal effort begun in the Bush-Cheney adminstration targeting veterans and their families who received veteran disability benefits, in a long game to privatize the United States Department of Veterans Affairs through false and politically motivated cries of 'fraud.'
The Republican false cries of fraud extend to citizens' voting as warnings to minority and non-Republican-voting citizens.
In an investigative report in WisconsinWatch published this weekend, Helu Wang and Dee J. Hall report the Republican effort has become widespread, increasingly hostile and still generating victims as state officials divine fraudulent intent from clerical omissions and state glitches.
Write Wang and Hall:
[The state seeks to] take back huge sums of money from companies and individuals who provided health care services but had minor paperwork errors. ...
The [IOG] has steadily increased the number of audits of Medicaid providers to more than 2,000 a year. ...
Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ Office of Inspector General has aggressively sought to recover money for clerical errors instead of legitimate fraud from personal care providers who help bathe, feed and clothe roughly 16,000 disabled or elderly clients,"
Patients, parents and nurses describe Republican efforts as a nightmare.
"The Fraud Investigation, Recovery and Enforcement (FIRE) Section in the OIG now has 30 staff, including 23 positions to support Medicaid and FoodShare Program fraud prevention and detection activities," crows Walker in a standard press release.
The message to Wisconsin citizens is: Use and you lose.
No such scrutiny or targeting exists in the Republican-created and scandalous Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) used heavily by Walker donors.
What Gov-elect Tony Evers (D) and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul (D) will do to correct Republican injustices remains to be seen.
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