Detecting and preventing Medicaid fraud is one of Attorney General Koster’s priorities. Medicaid fraud robs Missouri of much-needed health-care dollars, money that the state could use to pay the legitimate health-care bills of Missourians on Medicaid.
In his first year in office, Attorney General Koster’s office recovered a record $81.6 million, more than doubling the previous record. Since January 2009, the Attorney General’s Office has recovered more than $137 million in money stolen from Medicaid.
In addition to recovering money for Missourians, Koster aggressively prosecutes health-care workers and others who commit Medicaid fraud. In 2010, Koster obtained a 12-year prison sentence for a Southwest Missouri man who misappropriated more than $700,000 from the Medicaid program – the largest sentence ever obtained for Medicaid fraud. Koster also has successfully prosecuted a Missouri dentist who pled guilty to 13 felony counts for billing Medicaid for work he did not perform. Koster recently filed charges against a professional counselor after an investigation from a tip to his office revealed she charged the Medicaid program for children’s counseling services she did not perform and forged documents to try to cover up her crime.
Koster also goes after workers under the Medicaid system who abuse or neglect the patients they are paid to protect. He recently obtained a five-year sentence for a nurse’s aide who physically abused one of his clients.
Koster actively promotes Missouri’s Medicaid Fraud tipline, encouraging Missourians to call his office at 800-286-3932 if they suspect Medicaid fraud.