Report: Wisconsin Republicans Fabricated Fraud Charges out of Clerical Mistakes, Paperwork Errors

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.

Scott Walker and Republicans Are Poisoning State Prisoners Too

"Although they insist the water is now safe, Fox Lake officials have told inmates, staff and visitors about the high lead and copper levels and advised them to run the water for 15 to 30 seconds before using it for drinking or cooking, or when a faucet has been unused for more than six hours. (The state DNR recommends running the water for two to three minutes under those conditions.)"

Dee J. Hall has the story at WisconsinWatch.

Does pumping 'inmates' full of toxic heavy metals seem a cruel and unusual punishment, (Eighth amendment, United States Constitution)?

Wisconsin Lead Pipes Threaten Water, GOP Pushes Anti-clean Water Laws

Silke Schmidt and Dee J. Hall report from the Center for Investigative Journalism shows Wisconsin is poised to become home to "abundant" Flint, Michigans as Wisconsin's Republican governor is actively pursuing a bizarre, anti-clean water approach to water protection.

The public interest law firm, Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), has filed a "complaint in Dane County Circuit Court against the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for violating state open records laws by unreasonably delaying DNR responses to MEA open records requests."

Scott Walker is pursuing polices to literally toxify Wisconsin waters, and Walker is shutting down public scrutiny to his administration's complicity with the polluters.

Meanwhile, Walker and Republicans are selling out the peoples' water to corporate interests, (Viste, Door County Pulse).

In Sturgeon Bay in northeastern Wisconsin, citizens are fighting more sell-off of Wisconsin waters to private and polluting developers, (Alyssa Bloechl and Warren Bluhm, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin).

Top Scott Walker Aide Ordered Cabinet: Avoid State Email, Phones in Official Communications

Dee J. Hall has the story at Wisconsin Watch.

Walker Exposed; Rejects Concessions, Demands No Collective Bargaining

Update: As the Tea Partiers rush to defend a desperate Gov. Scott Walker today, Forbes reports, Koch Brothers Behind Wisconsin Effort to Kill Public Unions.

In other news, Rush Limbaugh went a rant last night calling Wisconsin families "freeloaders."

Walker's Bluff Called

Wisconsin public unions have said all along they will compromise, negotiate and make concessions as they have for decades.

Wisconsin citizens have accused Gov. Walker as lying about his true motives in the so-called "budget repair" bill that contains language to bust unions and political opponents by outlawing collective bargaining for public unions.

Now, the unions have again called Walker's bluff.

"Mary Bell, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, and Marty Beil, executive director of AFSCME Council 24, said in a conference call with reporters [last night] that workers will do their fair share to narrow Wisconsin's budget gap." [Hall, Spicuzza, Barbour; WSJ)

All Bell demands is that Wisconsin working families be allowed to continue the right to collectively bargain and organize as before.

Walker refused the offer in a rambling response that personally I still cannot decipher.

The plain truth is Walker and the GOP want to destroy unions, they want to obstruct Democratically leaning voters ("Voter ID"), especially College students; gerrymander all voting districts (Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison) is high on their list); and a host of other anti-democratic measures.

It's been written here before: What Walker and the GOP fail to understand is that Wisconsin citizens do not owe the Republican Party political allegiance or face pay-back through the budget and other legislative measures. We can vote for and work for whomever we damn please. It's called: Democracy

Walker will continue his too-slick-by-half defence of the fiscal crisis. But his expressed concern for the budget is a sham. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) has the story.Funny, but I do not recall Gov. Walker mentioning the Koch Bros. Why the silence, Gov. Walker?