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One Bhutanese family may have made around 10% of Bhutan’s GDP by defrauding United States taxpayers, according to testimony in a House Oversight Committee task force.
Taxpayers in Ohio have lost an estimated $1.2 billion due to foreign fraudsters, according to testimony from a House Oversight Committee task force on Wednesday. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, called the hearing after Luke Rosiak of the Daily Wire released a series of articles alleging billions of dollars in Medicaid home care fraud in Ohio.Gill, the chairman of the task force, explained how fraudsters in Ohio operate with little government oversight. According to Gill, they will find an elderly person, often a relative, and get a note from a doctor that says they qualify for in-home health services.
Home care services were designed for the elderly and those with special needs to have someone to take care of them inside their own home. Home care can include medical care, but oftentimes home care “providers” perform basic tasks for their aging relatives — cooking, cleaning, and helping pay bills. This makes it incredibly easy for those wishing to commit fraud.
After receiving the note from a doctor, the fraudster will contract with a “Home Health business,” Gill said, many of which are shell companies. “The business then facilitates Medicaid payments from the taxpayer to the fraudster, while taking a cut off the top.”
Ohio is home to the largest Somalian population in America outside of Minnesota, and the largest Bhutanese population in the world outside of Bhutan. Rosiak, who testified at the hearing, said almost all of the fraud he witnessed in Columbus during his investigation was among “foreign born people,” mostly from Somalia and Bhutan.
Rosiak told the task force about one Bhutanese family, the Adhikari’s, who he says has received over $350 million just from Medicaid in Ohio alone. Therefore, Rosiak claims the Bhutanese family has made around 10% of Bhutan’s GDP by defrauding United States taxpayers.
State authorities seem to validate Rosiak’s findings. Ohio State Auditor Keith Faber gave testimony at the hearing and indicated that there has been significant fraud in the state: “In this year’s single state audit, which is a rigorous, comprehensive financial compliance audit, we identified potentially up to $4.4 billion in fraud-related exposure connected to ineligible recipients in Ohio’s Medicaid program.”
Amid recent findings, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine paused enrollment for home care and hospice providers while the state works with federal authorities to investigate the situation. The Justice Department’s Fraud Division announced that they are partnering with the state of Ohio to prosecute fraud, and the partnership includes a “data sharing agreement to enhance the detection and prosecution of fraud.” --->READ MORE HERE
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Attorney General Todd Blanche: "This is a good day for Ohio."
A massive show of federal force descended on Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday following a Daily Wire investigation into Medicaid, with top Trump administration officials including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and the head of Medicaid Dr. Mehmet Oz on the ground to announce major anti-fraud initiatives.
At a joint press conference in Columbus, the administration officials announced several steps that are being taken to eliminate fraud in the state.
Forty-nine home health care firms have been suspended (most of them in the buildings highlighted in our stories), and one was raided Thursday morning, Dr. Oz said. He specifically mentioned The Daily Wire’s findings, saying “there’s a road here very close to where we are [with] 288 facilities in one block,” and “no more champagne on private jets.”
The press conference came a day after the House Oversight Committee spotlighted the Daily Wire’s reporting, in which task force chairman Brandon Gill drilled down into the abuse’s connection to refugee communities.
Oz highlighted that connection.
“This is a Mecca for Somalian populations, it’s a hub for the Bhutanese and Nepalese. We were naive to think that practices that are common in other parts of the world wouldn’t follow them here,” he said.
The assistant attorney general for the National Fraud Enforcement Division, Colin McDonald, said that Ohio’s attorney general will announce an $11 million action from the state’s Medicaid fraud control unit, that Ohio’s secretary of state has signed a data-sharing agreement giving investigators access to corporate ownership records, and that State Auditor Keith Faber has applied to have federal fraud investigators detailed to the state.
“To the people of Ohio, if someone offers you a medical perk that sounds too good to be true, it is,” McDonald said. “We are resolved to till every field and turn over every rock to bring [fraudsters] to justice.”
There were numerous announcements of fraud in various fields in the state. Dominick Gerace, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, announced a $30 million Medicaid fraud prosecution involving non-existent autism care. He said a home health care company in Columbus was raided Thursday morning, but that he would not be sharing details. --->READ MORE HEREFollow link below to a relevant story:
+++++Inside Ohio’s Home Health Empire+++++
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