GWC – Finger-pointing won’t get hospitals money back

Finger-pointing won’t get hospitals money back

But that happened last week when the state Medicaid director, Bob Robinson, told a legislative panel that Attorney General Jim Hood has refused to prosecute a case that may involve $24 million in fraud by a Medicaid provider.

The case Robinson mentioned reportedly occurred two or three years ago. It involved a North Mississippi company suspected of overcharging to drive patients to medical facilities.

Hood, in turn, said that if the Medicaid program gave his office information on any criminal case, he pursued it. Hood accused Robinson, in an apparently unrelated case, of trying to protect a rural hospital that filed for bankruptcy after it allegedly misspent $24 million of Medicaid funds also.

Whoever is correct, the state is still looking at the possible waste of up to $48 million. Yet the politics of the moment are so blatant. Robinson, appointed by Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, was willing to take on Hood, the only Democrat holding a statewide office. Hood, meanwhile, was glad to toss it right back in a Republican appointee’s face.

Greenwood Commonwealth
9/28/9