The State Auditor released an audit of DSHS Medicaid spending yesterday and it is a damning indictment of Mrs. Gregoire's1 administration:
A state audit has questioned nearly $1 billion that Washington's Medicaid program spent last year -- including $75 million that may have to be repaid to the federal government because it was used for unauthorized medical services for undocumented aliens.The EFF has posted the complete report. Sadly, none of this is new:
"We found no improvements in the ... controls from previous years," the audit said. "Washington state is providing service to thousands of ineligible clients using federal Medicaid money. The majority of these clients were admitted into the program due to unaddressed significant weaknesses in the department's controls. This is causing the nation's taxpayers to subsidize Washington state's non-compliance."I guess my headline two weeks ago was spot on: "Mrs. Gregoire promotes entitlements for illegal immigrants"
1 Her Spanish-language home page includes links to "Social and Health Services" and to "Register to Vote".
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 28, 2006 09:26 AM | Email ThisWhat a shock!
How could this happen?
Republicans are addicted to cheap foreign labor here and abroad. Their hate-mongering of Mexican Americans will not help them avoid the truth Bush Jr. now admits.
You need the Mexicans, just like you need the cheap Chinese labor you get from the Chinese Communist Party.
America despises your perversion. America is not happy with you.
You don't have much longer.
Death is patient.
It's amazing that death has been able to identify that all fruit Growers and restaurant owners are Republicans. Death obviously doesn't get around to the International District for lunch much. Rainier Valley must be full of closet Republican restaurant owners, Capital Hill as well.
Maybe it's time death takes a holiday.
Careful death, the hall monitor will send you to the office if you are late for class again.
I can't speak for 'death,' but that institutional democrat misfeasence just slays me.
Posted by: Hinton on April 28, 2006 10:16 AMFull of logic, or is that venom? It is also a little, what is that H word again?
Posted by: Fred on April 28, 2006 10:30 AMRight on the mark! No pun intended. SOX is just another program that keeps business from operating in a cost effective manner and EXCLUDES
the very government that wrote the legislation.
If State government refuses to comply with the findings from the Medicaid Audit. Perhaps the Feds should start witholding future payments until the standards are met.
Posted by: Smokie on April 28, 2006 10:58 AMIn other news, it rains here once in a while.
Posted by: ivan on April 28, 2006 11:03 AMIn other news, EFF highlights some of the ctiricism in the SAO report.
Hey Ivan, it's sunny over here.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on April 28, 2006 11:17 AMI know this was the case some years ago, and I doubt it's changed since then. If it still is the case, we should not be surprised by this report in any way.
And though it was pointed out earlier, this is a report from the state auditor, Ivan. Got a snarky comment for that?
Posted by: jimg on April 28, 2006 11:39 AMRacist.
Posted by: Willis on April 28, 2006 12:34 PMYou pointed out that Gov. Gregoire's home page has voter registration information in Spanish. You point this out in the context of an article on alleged use of public resources by "undocumented aliens". What is it about the site that bothers you? Is it a bad idea to communicate with spanish speakers in spanish? If so, was it also innappropriate for Pres. Bush to speak in spanish at campaign events? Is it also inappropriate for Rep. Nixon's website to have the same link to voter registration forms in spanish, chinese, cambodian, korean, russian, laotian, and vietnamese that gov. Gregoire's site has?
You say "Her Spanish-language home page includes links to "Social and Health Services" and to "Register to Vote", but you neglect to mention that those same links are included in all six of the languages used on her website. There is also a link to 'Access Washington.' Is that a bad thing?
Posted by: Eric on April 28, 2006 12:53 PMWe're not just a country anymore? We're a whole civilisation? Cool!
No wonder the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires fell apart after WWI, they spoke too many languages.
Posted by: Eric on April 28, 2006 01:19 PMVote in November, and you can change the direction of this state for good! Or er shall I say attempt to, with DEANRON administration counting the votes that is.
Posted by: GS on April 28, 2006 02:28 PMA government program with only 2-3 percent overhead?
Posted by: SouthernRoots on April 28, 2006 03:10 PMYou bet.
In respect to official functions of government, every transaction that can be conducted in English should be conducted in English.
Furthermore, it is a waste of taxpayer resources to print documents like voter ballots in any foreign language. You must be functionally literate in English in order to become a citizen, and you are supposed to be a citizen in order to vote (although dhimmicrats don't seem to recognize this point very well!), so printing the ballot in any other language represents needless pandering.
If you can't read it (and can't find anyone to read it for you) then you don't deserve to vote!
Posted by: alphabet soup on April 28, 2006 03:36 PMKing County Journal: Mediciad Spending Questioned in Audit. By Curt Woodward Associated Press
"Olympia - Washington state's Medicaid program made nearly $1 billion in questionable payments last year, and may have to refund millions of dollars for improperly paying illegal immigrants' medical bills, a state audti said Thursday."
Audit faults $1 billion in Medicaid spending
BY BRAD SHANNON
THE OLYMPIAN
"State auditors have issued another annual audit critical of the $6.2-billion-a-year state-run Medicaid program, saying they had questions about nearly $1 billion of the spending. The most politically sensitive expense was $28 million for the medical care of illegal immigrants."
Audit’s findings could hit hard
Health expenses might cost state
JOSEPH TURNER; The News Tribune
Published: April 28th, 2006 01:00 AM
"Washington might have to return as much as $32 million to the federal government because the state improperly paid for medical expenses of patients who can’t prove they are U.S. citizens or because their medical needs were not an emergency, according to state Auditor Brian Sonntag.
Findings in the audit are likely to fuel the national debate over immigration. Advocates of stricter immigration laws complain that illegal immigrants use services paid for by U.S. citizens.
Actually, it could be that the new Federal Proof of Citizenship requirement for Medicaid is going to put a stop to this. This could be the beginning of the end of rewarding the illegal immigrants in this country....
One can only pray!
Posted by: Deborah on April 28, 2006 09:54 PMSo, Republicans want people to work for no money, have no rights and no benefits.
Okay, again, why am I supposed to be surprised?
Hypocrites and Fascists.
Death mocks you.
Get a job
Posted by: swassociates on April 29, 2006 07:47 AMIf the President's plan created a manageable "guest worker" program AND IF the current people coming here ILLEGALLY would actually follow the program AND IF we actually enforced the program, THEN the "guest worker" would be coming here LEGALLY.
Coming here ILLEGALLY should not grant instant CITIZENSHIP. Even coming here LEGALLY does not grant instant CITIZENSHIP. There is a defined path to EARNING the rights of CITIZENSHIP. Millions have followed that path are enjoy the full benefits of the opportunities that CITIZENSHIP grants.
This audit of DSHS shows that there is a lot of waste in the way OUR government spends OUR money. The lack of following procedures and the law leads to this waste. Unchecked, it leads to the Democrats demanding more tax dollars.
Democrats are showing that they need to tax the PEOPLE to Death in order to "save" them. They collect the taxes and then go on uncontrolled spending binges and cry that they need more taxes. Pretty soon, most of the people only receive their sustenance from the government and the government runs out of things to tax, the system crumbles and dies.
As the government takes more and more control over providing the people with what the government deems necessary, the people's liberty dies just a little more.
Bigger government = socialist = totalitarian = death.
Bigger government mocks us.
(Republicans these days aren't doing to good with smaller government, but the growth of government will ALWAYS occur faster under Democratic "leadership")
Death, you need to get a life.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on April 29, 2006 08:10 AMIn an attempt to make lemonade out of lemons, I'll pose this question; How does one go about celebrating Pinko de Mayo ?
Posted by: KS on April 29, 2006 02:26 PM