PERRY TAKES AIM AT FRAUD:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently issued a directive to all state agencies to establish wide-ranging efforts to detect and eliminate fraud in government programs. “Fraud increases the price employers pay for workers’ compensation, drains the unemployment insurance fund and steals from the poor in need of vital Medicaid services,” Perry said after signing the anti-fraud executive order. The order targets fraud in government, the unemployment insurance program and the health care system, and directs state agencies to: develop their own anti-fraud measures and report those efforts to his office by Oct. 1; designate a staff member to implement fraud prevention and fraud elimination activities; and identify policy and organizational changes and provide legislative recommendations to improve fraud detection and prosecution efforts. Perry directed the Texas Workforce Commission to prioritize anti-fraud efforts in the Unemployment Insurance Program. He also ordered all agencies that operate programs or regulate participants in health care systems to pursue anti-fraud steps—including seeking both civil and criminal penalties in appropriate cases. Perry said no price tag could be affixed to the total cost of fraud in Texas. Nationally, the U.S. Department of Labor, has estimated that during 2001, about 24 percent (or $577 million) of the $2.4 billion in unemployment insurance overpayments were attributable to fraud or abuse. Signing the executive order at an auto parts supply store in Dallas, Perry noted that even employers who have not experienced workers’ comp fraud pay a higher price when insurance companies spread the risk among various employers.

Topics Texas Fraud