Ohio lawmakers have passed a new bill aimed at combating fraud in the state’s Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) systems. The legislation, which received broad bipartisan support, requires providers of non-emergency medical transportation and nonmedical home care services to use electronic visit verification, including GPS tracking, to support their payment claims.
Medicaid Fraud Prevention
The bill, Senate Bill 315, also gives state officials the authority to use technology to detect suspicious billing activity and grants the state auditor and attorney general’s office extra legal authority to demand records as part of their fraud investigations. This move comes after a series of reports by a national conservative website highlighted a disproportionately high volume of claims in the Columbus area for home health services, including cases of people with questionable backgrounds being approved to bill Medicaid.
State Rep. Brian Stewart, a Pickaway County Republican who leads a committee that negotiated the bill, stated that the legislation will help catch fraud and ensure tighter controls. The bill directs the state to set up a pilot program for GPS tracking within a year and to implement it within 18 months.
Snap Program Updates
The bill also contains a separate anti-fraud measure for the state’s SNAP program, requiring the state to replace all Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards with cards containing a security chip, similar to those found in modern debit and credit cards, to reduce the risk of fraud.
While the bill initially included a provision to ban family members from providing non-medical care to their relatives, it was removed after emotional testimony from relative caregivers, including mothers of children with severe disabilities, who described how getting paid by Medicaid to care for their family members allowed them to make ends meet and provide a normal life for their loved ones.
Democrats, who initially questioned the need for the bill, ultimately supported the final product, with Cleveland State Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney stating that Republicans agreed to many Democratic-suggested changes and removed the worst parts of earlier versions of the bill.
Original reporting: Signal Akron — read the source article.
