FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 16, 2017
Contact: James Hallinan (505) 660-2216
Santa Fe, NM – Today, Attorney General Hector Balderas announced that the Office of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Elder Abuse Division, a Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, recovered over $6 million last year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General reports $6,205,203 in recoveries made by the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General during federal fiscal year 2015-2016.
“Medicaid fraud pulls precious resources away from our state’s most vulnerable citizens, and my office will continue to root out fraud and hold the perpetrators accountable,” Attorney General Balderas said. “Our special agents, prosecutors and forensic accountants are searching for Medicaid fraud in all 33 New Mexico counties, so New Mexicans are urged to contact our office if they suspect Medicaid fraud.”
The State of New Mexico could have retained an additional $600,479 in federal fiscal year 2016 if Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino’s Senate Public Affairs Committee substitute for Senate Bill 519 would have passed last year. Senate Public Affairs Committee Substitute for SB 519 amends the New Mexico Medicaid False Claims Act, NMSA 1978, §§ 30–44–1 to –8 (1989, as amended through 2004) (“MFCA”). The goal of SB 519 is to retain additional federal money for the state by amending the current MFCA to mirror the federal False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C.A. § 3729 (2011) (“FCA”).
Attorney General Balderas supports SB 519, which is currently in Senate Judiciary. For more information about how to report Medicaid fraud, please visit http://www.nmag.gov/how-to-report-to-mfead.aspx
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