On the recordJune 20, 2017
I appreciate the gentlewoman's remarks and her strong support for this reform measure. I would also point out that a 2015 report from the New York State Comptroller indicated $513 million in improper payments in the Medicaid program were identified. In the same report, the Comptroller questioned an additional $361 million in transactions that would require agency actions to reduce costs or recover funds. In the past decade, the Office of Inspector General for the Federal Department of Health and Human Services found 10 specific instances in which New York State received improper Federal Medicaid payments in excess of $50 million, with six of those instances each exceeding over $170 million apiece. So there is a lot of room in the New York State Medicaid program to reduce improper payments and outright fraud that we have seen. I know my colleague, Ms. Tenney, from her experience in the State legislature, has seen firsthand what was going on with New York State's Medicaid system. Part of the reason this has occurred is because Albany was able to spend someone else's money. The old iron rule of government and the iron rule of family budget is that it is always easier to spend someone else's money. What Albany has been doing for 51 years has been shifting part of its Medicaid responsibility from the State level down to the local level, and so Albany was less responsible. This wasn't a Democrat or Republican thing, either. This happened under the Republican Governors.…
