Behind the verbal sparring last week between federal and state officials over policing Medicaid fraud, data shows Hawaii’s recent record on the subject is in some respects worst in the nation.
In each of the last four years, Hawaii’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has produced no indictments and no convictions for fraud — something no other state has done.
The unflattering score doesn’t completely define the achievements of Hawaii’s MFCU. But it does reflect the trouble the unit within the state Department of the Attorney General has had for over a decade internally and with state partners also policing local fraud in the massive federal health insurance program.
According to a 2019 report by the Office of Inspector General at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Hawaii’s MFCU had “low case outcomes” and operational issues from 2016 to 2018.
And the 2019 analysis…
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