During the last week of September 2011, a report by New York State auditors was released indicating that many nursing homes in the State of New York were failing to collect available funds from their residents’ income, including Social Security and pensions, to offset health care provided; and were instead routinely and automatically submitting the medical claims to Medicaid. The failure of local governments to enforce the rules requiring collection from nursing home residents’ income caused overpayments of $42 million during a 3 ½ year period.
Medicaid costs, which are passed on to taxpayers, are mounting rapidly. Over the past 4 years, New York State’s Medicaid program grew from 4.6 million recipients to 5.2 million recipients. The total cost of Medicaid has grown from $43 billion to $53 billion during that same period. Of those sums, the State Medicaid program currently pays nearly $7 billion for nursing home care for 121,000 State citizens.
If you have information about nursing homes that are conducting themselves in an inappropriate manner, including, but not limited to fraudulent billing or providing medically unnecessary tests, we would like to discuss with you legal action to curb these serious abuses. Please contact us to discuss what you have observed. Your contact with us will be held in strict confidence.