Assemblyman Tom O’Mara (R,C-Horseheads), chairman of the Assembly Minority Conference Medicaid Waste, Fraud and Abuse Task Force and the sole minority Assemblyman appointee to the Medicaid Inspector General Joint Conference Committee, led the fight for a bill creating the Office of Medicaid Inspector General that passed the Assembly and Senate.

The office would be responsible for preventing, detecting and investigating fraud, waste and abuse within the state Medicaid program, referring appropriate cases for criminal prosecution and recovering improperly spent funds.

“I am pleased we created an agency that effectively deters, detects and prosecutes Medicaid waste, fraud and abuse in the most efficient ways,” said O’Mara. “I am dedicated to the fight against Medicaid waste because it drives up property taxes and medical costs.”

The bill allows local governments to collect a percentage of the amounts recovered from Medicaid lawsuits. Also, local governments can claim 15 percent of the gross amount collected by the state for participating in a Medicaid case, including identification, investigation or development.

“This bill gives New York the effective tools to fight Medicaid waste,” remarked O’Mara. “The office needs all the tools we can afford it to efficiently combat the questionable expenses in New York’s Medicaid system.”

New York’s Medicaid program is larger than that of Texas and Florida combined, but the state has prosecuted far fewer Medicaid fraud cases than both states. According to the New York Times, Medicaid waste, fraud and abuse costs New York taxpayers almost $18 billion annually.