Maine Governor Tripling Medicaid Fraud Investigators

In the wake of two separate investigative reports released by Project Veritas that show evidence of ongoing Medicaid fraud in Maine, Governor LePage has requested that the number of fraud investigators in the Department of Health and Human Services be tripled.

Unlike most government spending, this increase in the number of investigators may actually help to save tax dollars.

From the Portland Press Herald:

“The added inspectors are needed, the governor says, to root out the misuse of programs that anecdotal reports and his gut tell him is going on. If the governor is right, stricter enforcement should save the state money.”

By “anecdotal reports,” we assume the governor means the undercover investigations he recently thanked Project Veritas for recording and releasing.

LePage is only the latest in a string of state elected officials who have been forced to take steps to curb potential Medicaid fraud in the wake of Project Veritas’ damning reports from across the country.

To date, Ohio, Virginia and South Carolina have all opened investigations into possible abuses of their entitlement systems by state employees.

This is an encouraging sign, but investigations alone do not go nearly far enough. The American people are owed a comprehensive reckoning of the true cost of the waste, fraud and abuse that run rampant within bloated and corrupt bureaucracies like Medicaid.

Unfortunately, although a report by Project Veritas can bring evidence of such abuses to light, there is little more that can be done by our citizen journalists until the voters themselves demand accountability from the people they elect to represent their interests.