Senators Hersman and Miller have introduced SB 310 which attempts to address Medicaid Fraud. It expands the types of assistance for which a person becomes ineligible after being convicted of public assistance fraud or tax fraud from Medicaid to any public support, including Medical assistance, Township assistance, Food stamps, Direct relief, Unemployment compensation, or “Any other form of support or aid.”
The period of ineligibility would be one year for misdemeanors and ten years for felonies. It also has a provision that would be useful to me in my work as a defense attorney, requiring a Medicaid recipient to notify the office of medicaid policy and planning of a claim the person is asserting against a third party for costs paid by Medicaid (e.g. recipient gets in a car crash; Medicaid pays the resulting medical bills; recipient sues person who caused the accident — now recipient would have to notify Medicaid.) At that point, Medicaid would have to send the third party a itemized list of medical bills and a notice of intent to hold a lien on the proceeds. This should facilitate making sure Medicaid gets paid back — perhaps it would prompt the Office to be more responsive to requests where the parties in a law suit are trying to settle a claim and need to get Medicaid to agree to its cut in order to finalize the settlement. (The intent of this legislation is probably more aimed at making sure the Medicaid recipient doesn’t just pocket the cash without making Medicaid aware that it’s entitled to reimbursement.)
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