Thursday, March 29, 2012

Maura Corrigan Is A Medicaid Gamer

The purpose of removing families from the rolls is to have them transition to the federal welfare Social Supplemental Income program.  Tapping the federal funding streams is the basis for this analysis and the schemes are typical Maura Corrigan.

Michigan officials disagree on strain caused by removal of thousands from welfare rolls


LANS­ING - There has been no major fall­out af­ter thou­sands of Michigan fam­i­lies were re­cently re­moved from the welfare rolls, the di­rector of the De­part­ment of Human Ser­vices tes­ti­fied today.

Michigan DHS Director Maura Corrigan and her alter ego
The Queen of Child Welfare Fraud (a.k.a. "Queen Gamer")
"There hasn't been an uptick in the food banks; there hasn't been an uptick in the home­less shelters," Maura Corrig­an told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Human Ser­vices.

"We've been looking at that," Corrig­an said. "It's a dog that didn't bite, as far as we're concerned."

But Gilda Jacobs, pres­ident and CEO of the Michigan League for Human Ser­vices, which opposed the welfare cuts, said Corrig­an's information is inconsis­tent with what she is hearing.

"It is way too early to get some hard data," Jacobs told the Free Press. But she said at least two agencies she's heard from are expe­ri­enc­ing increased de­mands for food and oth­er as­sistance.

The de­part­ment projected more than 11,000 Michigan fam­i­lies would lose their cash as­sistance late last year af­ter the state set a new four-year cap on receiving the ben­efits. Of­ficials pre­vi­ously used a five-year fed­eral lim­it, but said some fam­i­lies had received ben­efits for 10 years or longer, due to exceptions.

Asked if she is mon­itor­ing what hap­pens to heads of house­holds and their chil­dren af­ter the ben­efits are cut off, Corrig­an said her de­part­ment is mon­itor­ing.

TRANSLATION: Child Protective Services has not submitted total removals for the month of March.

About 1,000 fam­i­lies are taking advantage of a program offered through her de­part­ment and the Michigan State Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Au­thor­ity under which they can receive an­oth­er six months of hous­ing as­sistance as long as they show they are in a work program or have a job, Corrig­an said.

Thou­sands of oth­ers rejected offers of that as­sistance and Corrig­an said she be­lieves a signif­icant number of those did not want to come forward because they are in­volved in the "under­ground econ­o­my."

"We're at the epi­center of the enti­tle­ment cul­ture," Corrig­an tes­ti­fied.

"This is the vulnerable against the gamers. We have a fair number of people gam­ing the system. The gamers take away resources from the truly vulnerable."

Stop.  Hold that thought.

"Gamers".  I have heard that term used before.  Actually, I know that term well.  I had previously attributed Madame Corrigan with authorship and may now state that I was correct.

Michigan "Health Insurance Claims Assessment Act of 2011"  Public Act 142 of 2011.



Signed by Gov. Rick Snyder on February 20, 2011.

Introduced by Sen. Roger Kahn (R) on April 27, 2011, to repeal a 6 percent use tax on medical services health care providers, and replace it with a 1 percent tax on health insurance claims. These taxes are designed to “game” the federal Medicaid system in ways that result in higher federal payments to Michigan’s medical welfare system. This bill creates the new tax.

Continue reading.

Jacobs said Corrig­an and her de­part­ment should not be looking at the system through a lens that as­sumes widespread cheating "as opposed to how can we help people who are struggling in an econ­o­my that is just starting to recover."

How about focusing on Medicaid fraud in child welfare?   How about antitrust violations of child placing agency contracts?  Perhaps, Madame Corrigan, if you spent a few moments admitting that fraud flourishes throughout your Department in its entire cost reimbursements to the feds, you may find out that there are hundreds of millions being gamed under your leadership.


Madame Corrigan, how dare you attribute the financial woes of the state on a handful of people who are struggling to make it.  How much are we really looking at?  A million?  Let me show you where the big Medicaid bucks are being gamed.

What is the difference between the welfare gamers and Medicaid gamers?  I am going to answer this.  A welfare gamer is a person who trying to survive off state assistance of 200 percent below the poverty level, whereas, a Medicaid gamer is how your Department scams the feds through taxes to make up for the hundreds of millions in Medicaid fraud penalties you have to pay back?

Did I get that correct, Madame Corrigan?

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