Perdue Promoting Republican Medicaid Fraud Initiative

SB 985 introduced similar initiative in 2003, by Republican Senator Robert Pittenger.

March 31, 2010

NC NEWS -- Governor Beverly Perdue has loudly proclaimed her new initiative to stop Medicaid fraud. The heart of her claim is the use of new technology by IBM to review claims before they are paid. This is a great idea. However, her press release is highly misleading. As Lieutenant Governor from 2003-2008 she was culpable in not supporting this technology.

In 2003 Republican Senator Robert Pittenger introduced SB 985, titled, "Medicaid Fraud Detection Pilot Funds" in order to finance and use this technology. Unfortunately, the bill was referred to the Committee on Appropriations/Base Budget and never heard on the Senate Floor. Additionally, on April 29, 2003, Senator Pittenger offered a floor amendment to the Budget Act which passed 49-0 and further expanded direction relating to fraud software. Meanwhile, in the House Republican Representative John Blust offered the same bill. Legislative leadership refused to let it be heard, even though it had passed 49 to 0 in the Senate.

The Office of the Republican Leader North Carolina House of Representatives, Representative Paul Stam has attempted to find out who, on the Conference Committee, made the decision to leave this provision out of the final budget for 2003. It was quickly dropped and they find no evidence that Senate conferees fought to include this Republican amendment. Staff states the written record does not exist. But, since the Conference Committee overwhelmingly consists of Democratic members, the budget leaders, including then Lt. Governor Bev Perdue and Senator Kay Hagan, are culpable.

Moreover, some estimate that since 2003, possibly a billion dollars of Medicaid fraud, waste and other improper payments have been made in North Carolina. This error may have been diverted if the IBM technology had been implemented when purposed by Senator Pittenger.

Lastly, during the 2009 budget crisis, Republican Representatives, Stam, Blust and Dollar sensing an opportunity to implement a program that would save money, they introduced HB 190 to utilize the cost saving technology. It passed the State Government Committee, and then, in a different form and at the continued persistent insistence of Republican leaders, was included in the House budget, which was finally accepted by the Senate and signed by the Governor. Republicans were delighted that the Democrats finally agreed that it was time to save money, but as expressed, Governor Beverly Perdue is expounding on previously suggested Republican Representatives ideas and efforts.