Texas settles Medicaid fraud case for $236 million
A long-running case of alleged Medicaid fraud, in which taxpayer-funded costs for children’s orthodontic treatments in Texas soared over an eight-year period ending in 2012, has been settled for a $236 million payment to the state.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the settlement with Xerox Corp. and its former business-services subsidiary -- Conduent Inc., which now is a standalone company -- the largest single resolution to a Medicaid-related claims suit filed by his office. Still, Conduent had been on the hook for a reported more than $2 billion worth of fraudulent Medicaid losses and damages that Texas had been seeking to recover.
Xerox and Conduent were responsible for pre-authorizing dental and orthodontic treatment for children between 2004 and 2012, when Medicaid spending climbed steeply. State officials filed a lawsuit in May 2014, accusing them of shirking their duties by rubber-stamping treatment requests instead of providing appropriate reviews.
Medicaid is the federal health program for poor people and children.
“Misconduct by employees of Xerox and its related companies compromised the integrity of the Medicaid program -- the very program Texas hired the Xerox defendants to safeguard through the administration of a proper prior authorization review,” Paxton said in a written statement Tuesday.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190219/texas-settles-medicaid-fraud-case-for-236-million
So Paxton recovered only one-eighth of the fraudulent losses. Perhaps if Paxton wasn't distracted with his own criminal fraud case?
