Bill Combating Medicaid Fraud Relies on Broadband

Members of the Georgia Assembly want to use broadband technology to tackle Medicaid fraud.  On February 9, Georgia state senators John Albers (R-56) and William Ligon (R-3) introduced a bill that would establish the Georgia Medical Assistance Fraud Prevention Program.

The intent of the program is to prevent Medicaid recipients from sharing their identification cards with non-beneficiaries; deny ineligible persons, and authenticate actual providers of medical services.

According to staff in Senator Albers’ office, the program will begin as a six-month pilot in six counties, including:  Glynn, Ware, Pierce, Wayne, Camden, and Brantley.

Pursuant to the bill, Medicaid recipients will receive a smart card embedded with digitized information including name, contact information, fingerprint, prescriptions, etc.  All health care providers, with certain exceptions, will be required to have card scanners at their locations.

When a Medicaid beneficiary visit’s a health care provider, each health care provider will be required to scan the beneficiary’s fingerprints prior to and after each visit in order to verify the beneficiary’s identity.  This procedure is designed to address “phantom billing” where a health care provider might defraud the system by billing for services that were never actually provided.

The bill also requires that health care providers have finger print scanners at each of their locations.

“We’re leveraging technology to be better stewards of taxpayer dollars by eliminating any waste, fraud, and abuse to preserve the Medicaid system for those who need it the most, ” said Senator Albers.

According to Albers, given the need to protect patient privacy, the information on each card is encrypted and split between the card and the host system.  Neither half is usable by itself.

The pilot program should begin no later than October 1, 2011.

Alton Drew is a political economist and commentator. In addition to being a contributing writer at Politic365.com, Mr. Drew blogs at Law and Politics of Broadband, Paying for Dodd Frank, and The American Centrist. Follow him on Twitter @altondrew, become a friend at https://www.facebook.com/alton.drew, or visit his website at www.altondrew.com.

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3 Responses to Bill Combating Medicaid Fraud Relies on Broadband

1. John_Q_Public says:

   2:22pm February 14, 2011 at 2:22 pm

   This is a great idea! It demonstrates the true power of broadband to not only improve everyday life but also to transform entire industries. Hopefully this is the beginning of a revolution in using broadband to enhance the administration of huge programs like Medicaid.

   Reply

2. Pingback: Bill combating Medicaid fraud relies on broadband | Atlanta Politics

3. dealer says:

   1:59am March 9, 2012 at 1:59 am

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   Reply