ERIE COUNTY - Creation of the Erie County Medicaid Anti-Fraud Task Force, which will be tasked with rooting out provider-level waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid was announced by County Executive Mark Poloncarz.    

“While Medicaid represents the single largest cost to Erie County, at more than $211 million this year alone, prior administrations have failed to take significant action to help reduce this burden on local taxpayers,” said Poloncarz.  “As Comptroller, I have advocated for the County to take advantage of the resources available to us to aggressively investigate the Medicaid program.   Now as County Executive, I am taking action and creating an Erie County Medicaid Anti-Fraud Task Force that’s sole purpose will be to root out the provider-level waste, fraud and abuse that inherently exist within Medicaid.” 

With a new partnership with the New York State Department of Health (“NYSDoH”) and the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (“OMIG”), Erie County will be the ‘flagship’ of the State’s revamped Demonstration Project process and become the largest municipality outside of New York City to partner with the State on stamping out provider waste and abuse.  As part of their three-party Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”), signed and executed earlier this week, the State has agreed to fully fund all costs associated with the startup and administration of the County’s efforts.