Days after drawing criticism from his Democratic rival, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum endorsed a GOP senator’s proposal Tuesday to enhance investigations of Medicaid managed care.
With close to half of Florida’s 2.6 million Medicaid patients now in managed care, Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, in promoting legislation (SB 8) aimed at adding additional staff to the state’s chief financial officer to pursue Medicaid and public assistance fraud.
The move comes as lawmakers in both the House and Senate look to trim some of the skyrocketing $19 billion Medicaid program by steering more low-income Floridians to HMOs.
McCollum’s involvement also comes just days after Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, his leading rival for governor, criticized the attorney general for a declining success rate in Medicaid fraud investigations. Sink said the number of probes conducted by McCollum’s office last year is roughly half that conducted as recently as four years ago.
McCollum disputed Sink’s findings, saying his office had recovered $198 million for the state through his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
The Fraud Strike Force envisioned under Negron’s bill – priced at $1.5 million — would be part of the CFO’s office. The legislation is likely to earn a fast track in the Senate, where Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, is considered the frontrunner to win the CFO’s post, succeeding Sink. The strike force would include 11 leaders from across state government, an effort that is intended to improve coordination between various agencies involved in public assistance programs.
