Gov. Mike DeWine has been taking some blame following reports of fraud in Ohio's Medicaid program, specifically related to home health providers. But he said when he is criticized by his fellow Republican legislative leaders and the party's candidate to succeed him, they are missing some key points.
GOP candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy, House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima), and Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) have criticized DeWine for vetoing budget provisions they say would have prevented Medicaid fraud. But DeWine said he had a reason.
“The one bill I vetoed would have prohibited us from using GPS coordinates to check on fraud, to make sure that the person who is delivering the service is actually in that woman or man's house,” DeWine said. “So we had to veto that.”
Questions about Medicaid fraud have been raised after a conservative media outlet reported the state paid a billion dollars to suspect providers in 2024. DeWine said he thinks many cases cited in the report might not be instances of fraud.
'What we do is we take every allegation seriously.
We check. We check things out. Just because someone goes to a place and knocks on doors and doesn't see people—it could be a number of different things,” DeWine said. “It could be that there's fraud. It also could be that that company used to bill for Medicaid. Maybe they don't today. There’s all kinds of answers, while others can make allegations.”
DeWine said he's put payments to some providers on hold while the state investigates the possibility of fraud in the Medicaid system.
"Our job is to find out what the facts are and try to figure out, is fraud going on? If fraud is going on, we're going to pursue it. If fraud is not going on, we're not going to pursue it. Simple as that,” DeWine said.
DeWine has put a plan in place he says will combat Medicaid fraud. He said he is working with the Trump administration to protect Ohio's Medicaid system.
Since the beginning of 2023, Ohio has secured 444 Medicaid fraud indictments, 481 convictions, and 146 civil settlements and judgments, resulting in $78.4 million in recovered taxpayer funds.
