AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill to authorize payments to people who report MaineCare fraud will get closer legislative committee scrutiny next week.
On Wednesday, the Judiciary Committee heard from a number of groups and individuals who praised the idea as a potential moneymaker for the state and others who found the idea of bounties distasteful.
Lincoln Republican Rep. Jeffrey Gifford’s bill allows payments for a person who brings action citing fraud in MaineCare. Supporters said the state could recover $15 for every $1 spent investigating those cases.
But critics said those pluses are overstated and Maine could get bogged down in multistate litigation which costs money. The Maine Hospital Association’s Jeff Austin called it “profiteering” off law enforcement action. The Maine Medical Association said Maine’s not a hotbed of Medicaid fraud.
This one ought not pass- it would only make rats out of people.
This administration wants to turn the clock back to “1984” and have everyone become”Big Brother”. Frankly, I have better things to do with my life than worry about what my neighbors are or aren’t doing. I actually have a life!!!!
You are acting like his idea is original!! Hasn’t the federal government done the same thing???
This administration’s attempt to reduce regulations , costs, and red tape show just the opposite. And just who is against this administration ?
61% and growing!!!
The people who steal benefits who are not entitled to are rats.
What are you the gestapo now? Let the authorities do their job and tell them if they do not.
You should research gestapo. Using attacks to further your argument is not productive. Gestapo, and any other “nazi” type of attack only diminishes the memory of the millions that were killed by pure hate. You should be ashamed of yourself for using such terms carelessly.
If you KNOW of someone stealing, and don’t do anything about, then you are as guilty as the perpetrator, in my opinion. This shows character. How many crimes are solved with the help of the public.
Is it retroactive to include a certain pharmacist from the Oakland area who just so happened to end up as the Speaker of the Maine House?
Exactly!!
If there were enough evidence to support any type of criminal and/or civil activity, then I am sure that it would have been pursued by the Baldacci administration. Since there evidently was not then give it a rest. Every time there is anything about welfare fraud, this always comes up.
However, if you have any evidence then why don’t you file a civil suit? I understand if you do not wish to do this as it will require actual work. And I can certainly understand why you don’t want welfare fraud investigated; perhaps because welfare is your career and you don’t know how to do anything else?
Getting very old…you need a new line.
Maybe LePage and the GOP can import some “consultants” from the former East German Stasi to train Tea Partiers to spy on their neighbors and report them to the authorities.
Anyone with a grudge can accuse you of “fraud” – and you will be guilty in the eyes of the Tea Party until proven innocent.
yessah
“The Maine Medical Association said Maine’s not a hotbed of Medicaid fraud.” But, but, but, that’s just the OPPOSITE of what Mr. LePage and crew have been saying for over a year now. Gee, I wonder if there could be a reason that Mr. LePage/GOP/Tea Party could benefit from continually telling lies about this program? Could they really simply be lying to fulfill their agenda to keep more money in their own pockets by making the neediest among us suffer more than they do already? What kind of a person would do that?
And just how does someone line their pockets for trying to eliminate welfare fraud?
The tragic part is that there are (as of this writing) 5 other “einsteins” that agree with you.
Stop relaxing your brain , ” THE MAINE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION said Maine’s not a hotbed of Medicaid fraud”. Consider the source !
Exactly.
Fox insists that henhouse perfectly safe.
“moneymaker”???? That’s not how it should be viewed… It’s catching those that are frauding the MaineCare system!!
This is a bit much. What’s next, we’re going to have people on the lookout illegal aliens that they can turn in for a prize? I think a program similar to this was enacted to help slave owners retain their property. Yet another move by the Conservatives to put America back about 150 years in our moral and ethical development.
What’s the problem? IF&W has the same system set up to catch poachers. Is it OK to steal the tax payer’s money but not their game animals?
Why would anyone be so against catching welfare thieves? Every single time an attempt is made to reduce fraud you and the other bleeding hearts are against it. If there is no fraud, as you say, what is the problem?
Of course, as with any other issue, like homosexuals, the slaves reference comes up. So what is it? Are you protecting your welfare or are you in a bromance?
You forgot to mention that most who are offered a reward from “Game Thief” donate it back.
It is amazing how the left uses the plight of African Americans so loosely.Anything that does not suit them they use slavery, pretty sad. Oh i can not marry just like slavery.Oh i have to work 8 hours a day to get paid just like slavery.pretty sick if you ask me.I would think the African American community would be upset.They do not or could not understand the terrible things that happened to them.
It’s only being done so the taxpayers won’t have to support you any longer. Perhaps you’l find another state with better benefits to move to !
Two on this blog would lose thier computer if they passed this law.
how much they paying? and is it tax free money?
This bill is a really swell idea. It could solve all the alleged problems of “welfare fraud” almost over night. Just think about how many times our radical right tea party friends have said, “I know a woman who………..” or ” I just heard about a woman this morning who…….”. No more “welfare cheats” who have all of those new cars, flat screen TVs, fancy cellphones and buy only lobster at the grocery store and have high priced cable. The advantages of this bill are many. It will not just clean up “welfare fraud”, it will also give all of the radical right posters on this site who are constantly claiming to be aware of someone committing “welfare fraud” to be rewarded monetarily for their efforts. Just think we will soon have an entire new class of wealthy here in Maine. Radical right “welfare fraud” bounty hunters. I bet that after a few weeks we will be hearing how Maine, instead of having a $220 million shortfall has a budget surplus.
You know… this might be good thing from the perspective that it will shut everyone up about “I know this welfare abvuser” and “One tim e I saw this guy…”. Report it and if its found to be true, great. If its found to be false, shut it.
What happens if some one is turn in for welfare fraud an come to find out it’s not fraud . Can that person sue that person for faults clams ? Will they take the callers name down ? How much money will it cost the state to check all the faults clams that will be turn in ?
Its called Libel!
Kind of like Liberal!
{{Sweet Revenge}}!
???
Uh ah don’t know man, gimme another hit and lets go down and ask em man, cause if their givin out rewards man I’m turnin you in cause you riiped me off with that fake monkey dust last week man!
get off the drugs
Sorry but that was a wolly impersonation. !8>/
its a bad one
Guess I need some lessons….
It’s going to be a swamp. You are gonna end up with welfare benefactors reporting on welfare recipients who just happen to have a beef with the others. That’s not the way to proceed, do you want more violence?
The way to proceed is education, and making these welfare benefactors into ….as the governor would say ….”skilled workers”. Saying this, it cannot be solely the state’s responsibility, some of it must fall on the employer’s who are demanding skilled workers.
“Skilled workers”? Yesterday’s article about Cainbro hiring 150 people was ripe with the unemployed people stomping all over Cianbro. Even though Cianbro offers many programs to better yourself, why is it their job, or the state’s job to take you by the hand and educate you? Where did the liberals ever come up with the idea that there is no such thing as personal responsibility?
Why would you care how the fraud is exposed, as long as it is stopped?
WOW!
These Republican guys are Sick!
They wont put bounties on “Coyotes” but they will on Maine Citezens!
Guess what? Welfare fraud is a crime. As such, rewards are sometimes offered for people who commit crimes. See the connection?
Makes you wish you were a coyote don’t it. Uh wait they still have the Coyote Derby up in Springfield. No taxes paid either!!!!
I’m not opposed but if people feel so strongly that it should be reported then why not just report it? Why wait until they can profit?
Sadly, sometimes an incentive has to be offered.
I think a lot of them do.
One of my adult daughters is disabled. She has a genetic disorder. It is not obvious or visible. She is the sort of person Tea Party Republicans love to smear.
Let’s suppose one of LePage’s rabid bounty-hunters spots her cashing her SSI or SSDI check while looking normal. They follow her out to her car (she has a 12-year-old car! a sure sign of fraud!) and jot down the plate. They report her to the authorities and lick their chops, murmuring “fraud! fraud!” under their breath.
She gets investigated. She’s found to (surprise!) have a disabling genetic disorder. Dang! No bounty for the bounty hunter. But state money has been spent to investigate.
LizDavies, There are many hidden disorders that most are unaware of… Your daughter is righteous in her need of Social Security, but there are many out there who are not entitled to those benefits using them. Because there is not an unlimited pool of benefit monies available, there needs to be a mechanism to weed the un-entitled from the pool.
I’m entirely aware that unentitled people try to get benefits. Part of my job involves weeding them out (I don’t work for the state). I’m very good at this, and enjoy it immensely. I would like to see more people doing this work.
What really bothers me is the effort that some Republican PR people seem to be making to divide-and-conquer. They want to keep middle America focused on any frauds of a few thousand dollars committed by desperately poor people. Yet the bankers who brought the American economy to the brink of Depression II generally went unpunished, and indeed most got hefty bonuses within a year or so. And millionaires feel so very justified in demanding special tax breaks, though many of them are hedge fund managers who pay precious little tax to begin with (far less than you or I) due to arcane rules.
If they can keep us focused on local fraud in the thousands of dollars, they hope we’ll have no energy left over to notice the multi-million (billion?) dollar frauds of the 1%.
If ordinary people can be persuaded that most if not all desperately poor people are fraudsters who deserve nothing, the social safety net will be dismantled… and it won’t be there if and when you or I need it. Why doing this is so important to many conservatives, I can’t imagine, but this definitely their aim.
Wow, apples and oranges in your analogy. Bush and Obama gave the banks, Wall street types Tarp monies that needed to be paid back; where as welfare is a handout originally designed as temporary help for the desperate. When multi – generational families are on the same income tract, that’s government social engineering gone bad. I’m not a 1% and my family doesn’t have the means to pay for a college education, but thereare education loans to had out there for those who want to better themselves. I received the Stafford loan and paid it back after I graduated, that’s the American way.
Government is not ‘Robin Hood’ and it plays unfairly, we saw it during the last administration and now during this one. Your statement brings a question to mind, why can a company like GE pay no corporate taxes, shift millions of jobs overseas; not get boycotted by you occupy wall streeters?
Keep repeating your lies. People are starting to believe them.
Your comment is a vague smear. Silly. The recourse of someone with nothing to say, just a lot of anger.
Read all the posts here and think many did not understand that this a Mainecare, not welfare fraud reporting bill. This would be for reporting fraudulent healthcare providers, pharmacists and medical device providers to name a few.
Welfare cheats are stealing from the people that really need the help…and they are stealing from the taxpayers that pay to provide those services. Both sides of the aisle are impacted by welfare fraud. If it costs less to pay informers to help find and prosecute cheaters than it does to hire a slew of investigators to start out cold looking for fraud, then I think it is a plan worth considering. Law enforcement agencies use paid informants in many situations.
There is a reason that the Government Can’t do this, It’s called illegal search and siezure!
So they want to let your neighbors do it for them.
Do the right thing,
Open your front door so that your neighbor’s can rummage around in your desk draw looking for fraud!
Have you ever heard of “probable cause”? Probable cause is the standard by which an officer or agent of the law has the grounds to make an arrest, to conduct a personal or property search, or to obtain a warrant for arrest, etc. LE doesn’t get search warrants from a gumball machine.
Sounds good but how do you recover the money? In most cases of this fraud is done by people that don’t have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of.
Fraud complaints related to recipients of public services do not need additional incentives. This is already highly over-reported. It is common in state funded housing complexes to have neighbors constantly reporting each other for fraud when they have disagreements. A law such as this makes it easy for someone to stalk the poor to punish them and enrich themselves.
I will be watching to see if anybody presents the statistics on the number of fraud complaints received and the percentage of those that end up validated after they are investigated. Without the numbers, there is no way to determine if the law is in any way helpful.
This law also suggests a disparity with certain government assistance being targeted while others are not. I get that the poor make easy targets. This is a group of people that do not publicly stand up for themselves very often. As you read through the comments on these pages, how often do you see someone saying I am poor and I receive those benefits. They don’t!
Perhaps if bounties were put in place for white collar financial crimes we would see the most vastly under reported and economically damaging crimes punished. This constant preying upon the poor only distracts us from focusing on the real significant drain on our economy, financial crimes by institutions and the wealthy.
Distraction is for extraction!
Pass it and let’s see what happens. I can imagine quite a few disgruntled individuals pointing the finger at someone they don’t like with or without much of anything to go on. It may be happening now for that matter. How about a disgruntled employee of, say, a drug store suspected of overbilling? Will the size of the reward be proportionate to the size of the fraud? Say the drug store overbilled by a million dollars. Would the whistle-blower get 10%? Yeah, I think we should pass it and see how it goes.
….
All they need do is get a copy of who is a registered democrat. pretty simple what do I win!