AUGUSTA, Maine — A legislative committee this week will take another look at a bill to authorize payments to people who report MaineCare fraud.
The Judiciary Committee has scheduled a work session on the bill for Tuesday afternoon.
At a hearing last week, the committee heard from some individuals and groups who praised the idea as a potential money maker 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 that costs money.
I’m all for stopping the fraud. But how will the state “make money” on this? Shouldn’t it read, the state will save money?
Let’s do some math. Say a drug store owner overcharged for MaineCare by a million and Maine spent $70,000 to investigate. Yeah, that would be getting back $15 for $1 in investigation costs.
Unless the fraudster is politically connected then you get nothing.
Hmmm. time to turn the clock back a few years… ;-)
Paying people to report fraud is rediculous!!! How about you do it as a duty to the good old USA??? I also feel money and time would be better spent on a bill to address POLITICAL FRAUD and recouping the money that the politicians have stolen……….much MORE than the poor folks.
This is despicable. What’s next – paying bounties to people who turn in illegal immigrants?
That is a GREAT idea!!!!!
If the state paid informers just $100 per verified illegal alien turn-in, and made it contingent upon successful expulsion of said alien, we could save a huge amount of money presently wasted upon aid to illegals. Hey, they are LAW BREAKERS. No sympathy.
amen!! I love the idea!!
It is just a political ploy meant to stir up the Limbaugh/Colter right wing extremist’s.
Sorry, but with all the freud in the MaineCare system something has to be done. Could you please tell me how a 19 year old is eligible for MaineCare from housing, fuel, food etc? You mean to tell me someone this age can’t find a job? Bull #$%^. I know of kids on this system right now, they are nothing but deadbeat drop outs abusing a system.
I think you mean fraud. Freud, (Sigmund) was a psychiatrist.
Sigmund Freud was a neurologist who developed the method of psychoanalysis and the practice of psycho therapy, which is used by psychiatrist, who require a medical degree to dispense prescriptions, something that they did not have in Freud’s day.
Im all for people getting a job. But how many jobs are there to the number of people out of work ? Plus you half to count the people that are not getting any unemployment . What about job skills that people don’t have who pays for those people get get the skills if you are poor you do not have the money to go to collage . Even if you do go to collage who says they will get hired ?
Will I get a reward if I turn in WalMart for welfare fraud? They are the biggest offenders in Maine. No one can possibly survive on minimum wage, part time, in 2012 without a lot of help from the welfare system.
Well said avoiceinthecrowd, well said.
There has been a ton of gum flapping about welfare abuse since LePage took office. Yet there has not been one word mentioned about how under employing corporations take advantage of the system. Let’s call a spade a spade.
People in here say that any job is a good job even if it pays minimum wages an is part time
We pay $130,000 per “graduate” to educate the kiddies and then give them financial aid for a post secondary education. If you haven’t acquired the skills to demand more than minimum wage then that’s not on the taxpayers or the business owners.
Kids theses days do not want to borrow 30,000 or more to go to school an than half to pay for there education for the rest of there life
If you borrow money to take women’s studies or some other puff major then you can expect to be in debt for the rest of your life. Both of my kids studied majors that actually led to gainful employment. My daughter paid of her loan in about a year and a half. My son is on pace to pay his off in under a year. Even education majors in Maine start at 30K. A single person in Maine should be able to pay off their debt on that if they can force themselves to hold off buying the big screen TV, and the $50/month smart phone data plan. Priorities.
You need a phone an you need a tv
Funny thing: every women’s study major I know of is very well employed, and there is nothing “puff” about the jobs they do.
I am troubled by your skewed perceptions. Stating that education majors start at $30 K presupposes that there are jobs open for them and that they will be hired for those positions.
Then they are free to choose not to. Too bad I am not FREE TO CHOOSE to not support their lazy butts!!
No they are smart not to take on a debt like that so you think all kids should be in debt for years . I never went to collage an when i retired i was making 20 bucks an hour.
Agree. At some point, the kids need to take responsibility for themselves. Remember, people: it is equal OPPORTUNITY, not equal OUTCOME. The public purse pays for your education. You can help out by trying to learn something that will make you a nice living. Plenty of other people do.
Lets close all teh Walmarts everywhere and see how much welfare you really have? That is an idiotic statement.
Yes, I know, my logic makes your head hurt, so it must be idiotic. I only use WalMart as an example because they are the biggest offenders. There are hundreds of corporations who follow WalMart’s business model and foist the needs of their under employees on the rest of the tax payers. Again, a little slower this time for your benefit. NO ONE can survive and support themselves on minimum wage, part time jobs without help from the welfare system with their groceries, heat, and medical care. NO ONE. We were discussing welfare abuse, weren’t we?
Republicans LOVE Welfare!
Lets remember that the Chamber of Commerce IS the Republican Party.
It gives them something to divert the attention from them + it gives them cheap labor!
They would never end it completely, just whittle away at it for effect.
It is amazing how clear we see things when we look with our eyes OPEN. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the GOP is one big ulterior motive. Just follow the path of destruction. It usually leads to a big pile of money. The more destruction and lives ruined, the bigger the pile.
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If they cannot support themselves at Walmart, then DO NOT work there! You have to be one idiotic democrat that believes that all commercial enterprises disturb working people! Get off of your socialist chair and go into the real world. If it wasn’t” Walmart then it would be a chicken farm or what ever. There are people that are qualified to work at Walmart and people that are qualified to be rocket scientists. Do not try to differentiate.
Yes, do not work at Walmart. Or KMart, Target, Kohls, McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Marden’s, Best Buy, Pizza Hut, Family Dollar, Rite Aid, Dunkin Donuts, Subway, Arby’s, etc.. Most of the big corporate labels now all pay the same. Crap. Whether you think they are deserving of more is irrelevant. My point was that you can’t work for any of these places and live on what they pay without help from the welfare system. We were talking about welfare abuse, right? Big corporate America abuses the system worse than any individual could ever attempt to. To not see this would be, well, idiotic. Just like most Republicans.
In China you didn’t have to work for apple computer,
( Until they put up the Suicide Nets)
If the program was monitored the way it should be, we would not be in this mess. Better accountability is what is needed , not paid citizen watchdogs!
I would rather spend the money hiring more Maine forest service and DHHS fraud investigators. Paying neighbors to spy on neighbors is the sort of thing they do in communist dictatorships not democracies.
Use the kids to report on their parents …… that’s been used in the past and was “extremely” successful for a short time and you won’t have to pay them a dime.
Gutes Glück mit dem
wer zuletzt lacht, lacht am besten
Das dunkle Bier ist gut!
If the state does not pay honest folks a small amount to expose fraud then the state will continue to pay a larger amount to dishonest folks who commit it. Sides must be chosen.
We need a Bounty on Tax Pledge signers who are out to cripple the government!
http://s3.amazonaws.com/atrfiles/files/files/State%20Taxpayer%20Protection%20Pledge%20List_CURRENT_2012(3).pdf
Maine State Constitution–
Article ( 9 ) Section ( 9 )
The Legislature shall never in any manner Surrender the Power of Taxation.
Oh, yes, let’s turn neighbor against neighbor. For a few bucks. Mr. LePage, you and your Republican co-horts are a very good example of why this country is failing. Go after corporate fraud, that’s where it’s needed.
Does the bill as currently drafted allow for the provision of state torches and pitchforks to the witch-hunting mobs? Times being what they are, we cannot reasonably expect them to provide their own at private expense.
Will ROBert Nutting be involved in the work session…oh please…please oh please…
I don’t know about this bounty business, but every welfare cheat should be reported. More importantly, DHHS needs to REALLY investigate reported cases of fraud and not blow them off after a minimum amount of time spent on a case.
Through the years I’ve read/heard many stories about blatant welfare abusers being reported to DHHS and they did nothing about it. What good is a bounty when DHHS doesn’t seem to do anything about the fraud cases they already have?
How can we expect this to work when the elected selectmen of a town won’t investigate a report of property tax abuse? If we had better, more honest leadership, perhaps the expectations of the people would follow.
We are going back to the days of Nazism if neighbor is reporting on neighbor. The agency should be able to screen the people they are paying the Maine Care to. I would think it is their responsibility, not
the general public. Letting Mr Nutting off the hook for not repaying the money on his “mistake in billing”, is hard to understand also.
Just remember AVOICEINTHECROWD nobody can make you take a minimum wage job, if you don’t want to.
There is something even smellier than the prospect of horrendous litigation: this is not the first time someone has proposed a government build a network of paid informers. Doing so puts any democracy in bad company, or so a serious reading of history would suggest.
I am almost convinced that the media only wants reactions, not thoughtful consideration, nor action, or every article referring to a legislative bill would give the legislation numbers and links.
Here is the State Statute as it stands for Title 22 Chapter 1 Section 15
http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/22/title22sec15.html
Here is the proposed amendment http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP1322&item=1&snum=125
This action is known as a qui tam action, surely intended for hugely grevious actions that could threaten the safety of the nation, and, as with most laws, are ancient laws.
The amount of time taken to draft the amendment, and legislators work part-time, is dumbfounding.
Note the number of lawyers and law firms who turn up in qui tam cases in an internet search. Certainly some of them are genuinely interested in protecting rightful whistleblowers – the Erin Brockovitch case comes to mind, but otherwise, it looks suspiciously like ambulance-chasing.
“…this is not the first time someone has proposed a government build a network of paid informers.” Any dictatorship uses a network of paid informers. But you have to remember every fanatical republican knows at least one recipient who is defrauding the state. The rest of us know at least one provider like our Speaker of the House who has defrauded the state. But apparently the Republicans will not speak unless they are paid. Guess will just have to do it. Plus it can’t hurt the state to award 10 or 15 dollers each year.
It would not be “10 or 15 dollars.” Please read the proposed amendment.
“But critics said those pluses are overstated”… And, just who are the critics?
Start with yur own employees in DHHS
I can see everyone being turn in that should be fun than they will half to hire more staff to check out everyone that have been reported. Now will they keep a list of the people that report other people ? So dose that mean that a person being reported can sue that person that turn them in if they are found not committing fraud ?