Medicaid Whistle-Blower Wins in Court, but Not Yet at Love
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
There were a few matchmaking offers from people in his sister-in-law’s shul, and one from an actual shadchen (Jewish matchmaker), offering, by e-mail: “sister and granddaughter of rabbi; graduate of Wesleyan; entrepreneur, passionate foodie; VERY beautiful (soulmate?).”
But a week after winning $4.9 million as his reward in a federal whistle-blower lawsuitagainst a Medicaid program in New York City, Dr. Gabriel Ethan Feldman is still unspoken for.
“I wish, I wish I could tell you that I have,” Dr. Feldman said, when asked Monday whether he had found a bridal candidate.
“Only a few people have submitted names, here and there.”
It was Dr. Feldman’s mother, Bernice Pohl Feldman, who took the opportunity of his award to tell the world that while she was proud of him, she would like for him to find a nice Jewish girl to marry, who also celebrates Passover.
Dr. Feldman is 50 and has never married. Considering that his award — actually $14.7 million before taxes and his lawyer’s cut — vaulted him from his already respectable $105,000-a-year salary evaluating Medicaid cases into the 1 percent, one might expect a few women to step forward.
He urged people to send pictures, noting that the shadchen had not. “If they’re going to send an e-mail, they’re going to have to send a picture,” he said. “That’s de rigueur in cases like this.”
He added: “I can tell you that I have dates, and I continue to have dates, but I am not overwhelmed by young supermodels.”
When it was suggested to him that asking for supermodels might be setting a high bar, he said: “I guess so. That’s how you get to be a whistle-blower.” And he warned that he was not for everyone: “I’m a niche interest, put it that way.”
Under contract to the city, Dr. Feldman evaluates Medicaid services for one of nine Community Alternative Systems Agencies. In his lawsuit, he complained that the city was providing expensive 24-hour services through Medicaid to keep elderly and disabled people at home, when they could have been cared for through other programs for less. Advocates for the disabled said the alternative was a nursing home or hospital. The city admitted to violating some Medicaid rules and settled for $70 million.
“We spend the most on Medicaid, but we also have a million people who are uninsured,” he said. “I got into public health so that these kinds of things will get better, and I’m still hoping that they will.”
On the bright side, he said that his mother, who inspired all the matchmaking, is now a minor celebrity in Riverdale, the Bronx, where she lives. “I think that she probably could have her own talk show,” he said.
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