People from Georgia are robbing the taxpayers of Tennessee by taking TennCare benefits to which, legally, they are not entitled.
This, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution, which said authorities are investigating 16 people in Georgia for receiving benefits from Tennessee’s Medicaid program.
Those 16 Georgians likely couldn’t get health care coverage in their home state, the paper went on to say.
This is currently the largest number of such cases originating from any state, the paper quoted Tennessee’s Office of the Inspector General as saying.
“The impact’s huge,” Tennessee Inspector General Kim Harmon reportedly said.
“I was just looking at some of our numbers — per person, the average annual cost per enrollee is $4,062 per month. That means that Tennessee taxpayers are funding 30 percent of that.”
TennCare recipients must notify the state if they move, and they must periodically renew their status and state where they live, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
But the out-of-state cases of TennCare aren’t just coming out of Georgia.
As The Tennessee Star reported last month, Tennessee officials announced they indicted five Alabama residents on charges of passing themselves off as Tennessee residents so they could qualify for TennCare.
All five people fraudulently reported to Tennessee officials that they and their minor children were state residents so they could qualify for TennCare, according to a press release from the Tennessee Office of Inspector General.
Authorities charged the five people, all from Bridgeport, Ala., with TennCare fraud and theft of services.
As The Star reported in December, authorities arrested and charged a Florida woman with TennCare fraud — for the sixth time.
Also, as The Star reported that month, quoting a state audit, TennCare gave out more than $700,000 to duplicate members and to people who were already dead or incarcerated.
All those recipients were ineligible to receive TennCare money.
Those particular findings covered July 2016 through December 2017.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
[…] reported in July, people from Georgia are robbing the taxpayers of Tennessee by taking TennCare benefits to which, […]
[…] The Tennessee Star reported in July, authorities were investigating 16 people in Georgia for receiving benefits from Tennessee’s […]
You have not seen anything yet! Wait until Billy Lee and the boys sign on for that $7.9Bn federal block grant to stoke up the Medicaid for All (TN Care on Steroids) Plan. It won’t be 10 from GA. It will be 100 or 1000 from Ga. X all the other surrounding states, and even further out. People have short memories about what happens when you stoke up Tenn Care, or Medicaid. Just google Tennessee Ten Care Fraud.
“As The Star reported in December, authorities arrested and charged a Florida woman with TennCare fraud — for the sixth time.”
How can a FL woman defraud TNCare six times if they are doing their job?
So why does it take years to identify these thieves?
Sure appears to be a failed system that enrolls these people. But, of course, it only my tax dollars that are being stolen. No big deal.
I wonder how much fraud is happening with those actually living in Tennessee. Government run operations are wasteful at the best. And some people want to expand TennCare. I am for cutting it to the bone.
We continue prosecute individuals for TennCare fraud but fail to look at the institutional “billing errors” that are costing us millions annually.
Billing errors my eye evidently your financial people are cooking the books or something and I used to work in payroll shouldn’t happen if you are doing it the right way!!
I agree we do overlook institutional over billing even after it has been extensively reported by local newspapers and local television news .