Broken Whistle
Critics call Wisconsin’s Medicaid fraud crackdown ‘bullying’
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The state claims tens of millions in fraud in the Medicaid program, but some home care and family planning providers say their expenses are legitimate.
Wisconsin Watch Media Partners Center (https://partners.wisconsinwatch.org/series/broken-whistle/)
Coburn Dukehart/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
Dan Bethards was an undercover drug agent who brought allegations against former Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Jay Smith to state and federal authorities. He was fired in October 2013 for allegedly violating several Department of Justice rules. Bethards claims he was the victim of whistleblower retaliation.
This series explores Gov. Scott Walker’s attack on waste, fraud and abuse and the dwindling protections and incentives for whistleblowers in Wisconsin.
The state claims tens of millions in fraud in the Medicaid program, but some home care and family planning providers say their expenses are legitimate.
As an administrative law judge hearing worker’s compensation cases in Wisconsin for three decades, Joe Schaeve said he often knew how certain doctors hired by employers and insurance companies would rule even before opening their reports.
Under Gov. Scott Walker-appointed panel, appeals of worker’s compensation decisions are up, and a study shows more injured workers lost
Dissenting Supreme Court justice called 2015 decision ‘absurd,’ saying it removes protections for employees who disclose information their supervisors already know
Two state employees say they were humiliated and harassed after reporting suspected fraud in their agencies; ‘You feel rotten,’ Suzanne Weber said
Whistleblowing traditionally has been seen as a public-private effort to expose wrongdoing, said Patrick Burns, associate director of Taxpayers Against Fraud, whose group works to protect and advance the cause of whistleblowers.
Big business pushed to eliminate incentives for whistleblowers reporting Medicaid fraud; feds responded by cutting millions in settlements awarded to Wisconsin
Civil lawsuits such as the one brought by former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager are known as “qui tam” cases. The word is taken from a Latin phrase that means, “He who brings the action for the king as well as himself.”
Wisconsin ‘one of the worst states for whistleblowing,’ national expert says. Anti-fraud effort helps bottom line but falls mostly on programs for the poor.
Dan Bethards lost his career, his house and many of his friends in law enforcement after he reported his boss for selling and making guns without a license
While President Donald Trump stews about leakers, members of Congress from the state sponsor various measures that could either boost or sideline federal tipsters