What better way to prepare for the kick off of
Child Abuse Propaganda Month than with a package of bills to cover up Medicaid fraud in child welfare, again!
Covering up Medicaid Fraud
LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Supreme Court Justice Mary Beth Kelly and Michigan Department of Human Services Director Maura D. Corrigan have urged legislators to approve bills before both chambers that will streamline the adoption process for children in foster care. The passage of these bills could pave the way for expedited placement in qualified, permanent homes for more than 1,100 children.
Currently, the only person authorized to approve adoptions for children in foster care is the Michigan Children’s Institute (MCI) superintendent. Since April 2010, the MCI superintendent has received 1,100 such cases for approval.
Under the bills, the MCI superintendent, the legal guardian for children committed to MCI when parental rights have been terminated, may authorize a designee to provide written consent to the adoption, marriage, guardianship or emancipation of MCI wards. The designee would be allowed to authorize adoption requests where the child is already living in the recommended adoption home and a review by a caseworker and supervisor has determined there are no concerns about the placement.
Kelly said her experience as a family court judge convinced her that the bills are needed.
“No matter how good a job the MCI superintendent does, he or she is only one person, and it is simply unrealistic to expect one person to perform in-depth reviews of hundreds of these cases each year,” Kelly told legislators.
While finding a permanent, loving home for children in foster care is a key mission for DHS, Corrigan was clear that the expedited process will not sacrifice due diligence in the examination of potential adoptive families. The department will be systematic, careful and considerate when determining who will be named as a designee, Corrigan told members of the Senate Families, Seniors and Human Services committee.
“The best place for a child is in a stable, permanent home. That is our goal for each of the 4,150 children in foster care available for adoption. Joining a family should not be delayed because only one person in the entire state can authorize a child’s adoption or guardianship,” Corrigan said.
Among the bills’ supporters is the Michigan Probate Judges Association. In a March 15 letter to Sen. Judith Emmons, Judge Dorene Allen, chief judge of the Midland County Probate Court and chair of the MPJA’s Juvenile and Adoption Issues Committee, wrote that the legislation “will facilitate the permanency of children in the abuse and neglect system, certainly a goal we can all agree upon.”
This is my response:
It is amazing how Michigan allows the Supreme Court to make law from the bench to usurp, or rather, "transfer" judicial powers of the decision-making process to "designees" who are neither appointed or elected, to represent the State.
I have aggressively dissented with finding of fact and conclusion of law, only to be silently dismissed when addressing issues of false claims and violations of due process contained within this package of bills.
The decisions of the Superintendent of Michigan Children's Institute, Bill Johnson,
are never question as to being legitimate, but rather if the decisions are whimsical within the doctrine of arbitrary and capricious.
How is it one person, being the Michigan Children's Superintendent, Bill Johonson, can wield so much power? It is only within the later part of Director Ahmed's DHS administration and the current DHS administration of Director Maura Corrigan that letters of appointment of the Superintendent have been generated. Prior to this, nothing authorizing a civil servant to represent the State of Michigan in Court decision-making process existed.
How can the Michigan Children's Superintendent, Bill Johnson, go without public scrutiny when the State's foster care system is under federal court jurisdiction in dealing with the abuse and neglect of children who under the legal guardianship of this one, omnipotent man, Bill Johnson?
Why is is that not one case of Medicaid fraud in child welfare under the aegis of the Michigan Children's Superintendent, has been referred to the Office of Attorney General Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for prosecution and recovery?
These bills not only streamline the adoption process; these bills cover up the pervasiveness of Medicaid fraud in Michigan's child welfare system, because, once a child is adopted, the service files verifying false claims are sealed from external examination.
The time has come to end Medicaid fraud in child welfare and so have I.
Beverly Tran
An Original Source
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