Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Author: shailender

Medicaid fraud fears grow amid massive red state billing spike in sector that also plagued Minnesota

Medicaid fraud fears grow amid massive red state billing spike in sector that also plagued Minnesota

As fraud concerns ramp up across the country, particularly involving Medicaid, North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek tells Fox News Digital that the problem is very real in his state, especially when it comes to autism therapy, an area that has been highly scrutinized in Minnesota. Boliek is sounding the alarm on potential waste, fraud, and abuse within the state’s Medicaid program, specifically calling out in an interview with Fox News Digital a 47,000% explosion in autism therapy billings that he has flagged since taking office last year.  “Those are vital services to folks and individuals that need that therapy,” Boliek said. “But when you have, like in North Carolina, a system that went from $1.4 million or so in total billings for autism therapy to more than $660 million a year in billings on autism therapy within a five-year range, that begs an audit from the state auditor, who in North Carolina, we are the top watchdog agency for taxpayer waste, fraud, and abuse prevention. So we’ve dug down into that or in the middle of that.“ Boliek, who was speaking to Fox News Digital from the State Financial Officers Foundation annual conference in Orlando, says his office is “hand-in-hand” with Vice President JD Vance’s focus on eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse to “make sure that the people who need the services and deserve those services get the services” without “wasting money.” NORTH CAROLINA AUDITOR EXCITED FOR ‘REAL EFFECT’ OF STATE-LEVEL DOGE: ‘KEEPING GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE’ One of the core problems, Boliek explained, is that the system is oftentimes designed in a way that fails to properly safeguard against waste and abuse. “What we’ve got is we’ve seen examples where there might be three different clinical providers billing during the same tranche of time on an autism therapy client and that is because of poor rulemaking,” Boliek explained. “Some of it is possibly illegal and probably illegal, and we’re going to point that out, and we’re going to try to put people in cuffs because of it.” “But some of it might be technically legal because of the lax oversight from a Democrat-led Department of Health and Human Services,” Boliek said, referencing the top state health agency in North Carolina. In a March 10, 2026, hearing of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Medicaid, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services presented data that matches Boliek’s narrative of exponential growth in the autism therapy space. TRUMP ELECTION INTEGRITY PUSH EXPOSES MASSIVE AMOUNT OF DEAD PEOPLE ON NORTH CAROLINA VOTER ROLLS The report confirmed that Medicaid spending on ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy grew by 347% between 2022 and 2025 alone and that total spending is projected to hit $842 million in state fiscal year 2026 and $1.14 billion by state fiscal year 2027. Medicaid fraud has been a hot-button issue across the United States when a scandal in Minnesota gained widespread attention last fall and spreading to places like California and Ohio, the latter being the subject of a recent Daily Wire exposé examining seven medical buildings in Columbus, Ohio, that house 288 Medicaid companies and bill the government $250 million. The key issues with Medicaid and the ease with which it can be abused both illegally and legally, according to Boliek, are the “minutia of rulemaking” that is “built in by government.” “For example, how individual entities, whether they are a provider of clinical medical services or whether they’re a provider of daycare services or other services that can be paid for through departments of Health and Human Services, how those rules are set up and what the billing rules are,” Boliek explained. GOP SENATOR LAUNCHES EFFORT TO CLOSE MEDICAID LOOPHOLE ALLOWING FRAUDSTERS TO RAKE IN MILLIONS “It really is minutiae, but in North Carolina, for example, we still have some services that are delivered on a fee-for-service basis, and they lack transparency and lack accountability with respect to who can bill and how much can be billed for particular services. That’s why we’ve taken a deep dive into some particular fee-for-service areas in North Carolina and are looking at provider data on exactly how those services are billed. That’s where the flaws are.“ During the developing fraud scandal in Minnesota, federal agents discovered that one suspected scammer defrauded the state’s autism-treatment program of roughly $14 million and allegedly billed Medicaid for fake therapy sessions, used untrained staff and paid parents $300 to $1,500 a month to keep their kids in the program.  The state’s autism program’s budget jumped from $3 million in 2018 to nearly $400 million in 2023, according to Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “The fraud is so obvious, just simply looking at the exponential growth in some of these social services programs, that anybody kind of looking at how fast this was growing should have known that a fraud was a major reason why,” Minnesota state Sen. Michael Kreun, a Republican, told Fox News Digital in December about social services fraud in his state. In terms of next steps in North Carolina, Boliek says his office is working with lawmakers to strengthen fraud enforcement by increasing financial accountability, expanding investigative and Medicaid audit resources and investing in staff and technology to recover misused funds.  Boliek explained that one important tool to crack down on fraud is artificial intelligence.  “Look, we’ve got to pour jet fuel on artificial intelligence in the area of state auditing because the fraudsters are using AI and if we’re not using AI to combat the fraud, then we’re going to be on our heels and the taxpayer isn’t going to be protected.” He emphasized that these steps, especially enhancing oversight of programs like Medicaid, are aimed at holding individuals accountable and returning taxpayer dollars for more effective use.  The State Financial Officers Foundation, a group of financial officers that collectively oversees more than $3 trillion in state funds, released a report earlier this year outlining how the organization safeguarded

Pentagon releases video of strikes on Iranian oil tankers

Pentagon releases video of strikes on Iranian oil tankers

NewsFeed Footage released by the Pentagon shows US strikes on two Iranian oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. The US military says the vessels were disabled following overnight exchanges of fire with Iranian forces, preventing them from reaching ports in the Gulf of Oman. Published On 8 May 20268 May 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)

Cambodians struggle with displaced lives amid tense ceasefire with Thailand

Cambodians struggle with displaced lives amid tense ceasefire with Thailand

Preah Vihear/Siem Reap provinces – When asked how she spends her day, 11-year-old Sokna rattled off a list of chores. She first fetches water, then washes dishes and sweeps the leaves and dust from around the blue tarpaulin tent her family now calls home, in the grounds of a Buddhist pagoda in northwestern Cambodia. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Sokna and her sister have stopped attending school, their mother Puth Reen said, since moving to this camp for people displaced by the recent rounds of fighting between Thailand and Cambodia. The two sisters are among more than 34,440 people who remain in displacement camps in Cambodia – 11,355 of whom are children – as of this month, according to the country’s Ministry of Interior. “I tried to tell them to go to school, but they don’t go,” Puth Reen told Al Jazeera, explaining how precarious life had become since returning to live in Cambodia after fleeing neighbouring Thailand, where she had worked for many years, as the fighting started. Like Puth Reen and her family, the future looks murky for the tens of thousands of Cambodians – including many schoolchildren – who are still in displacement camps, and their lives remain disrupted months after the last outbreak of fighting between Thailand and Cambodia. Forced to flee their homes in areas where local troops are now stationed and on high alert, or in areas occupied by opposing Thai forces, Cambodia’s internally displaced say they are surviving off aid donations, while those more fortunate are transitioning from emergency tents into wooden stilted houses provided by the Cambodian government. But with tension still evident between the leadership in Bangkok and Phnom Penh, the tenuous ceasefire along the Thai-Cambodia border means life cannot yet return to normality. Advertisement Some areas on the Cambodian border, such as the villages of Chouk Chey and Prey Chan in Banteay Meanchey province, have become rallying points for nationalists who post on social media about the Thai occupation of Cambodian territory. Their anger is directed at the large shipping containers and barbed wire that Thai forces have used to block access to villages once inhabited by Cambodians and occupied during fighting. The Thai military-installed containers now form a sort of new frontier between the two countries. The Cambodian military has also prevented people, such as local farmer Sun Reth, 67, from returning to their homes in front-line areas, which are still highly militarised zones, with troops ready at any moment for a new round of fighting. “Now the Cambodian military base is just next to [my house],” Sun Reth said, adding that she was not allowed by authorities to sleep in her modest home or pick cashew nuts from her farm to sell for a little income. Cambodian children more focused on ‘rumours’ of war The long-held border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia erupted into two rounds of conflict last year, over five days in July and almost three weeks in December. Dozens were reported killed on both sides, and hundreds of thousands of civilians fled their homes as both countries’ armed forces fired artillery, rockets, and, in the case of Thailand, conducted air strikes deep into Cambodian territory. Thailand has a modern air force, a military capability not possessed by its smaller neighbour. Cambodian and Thai officials reached a ceasefire on December 27, but the situation remains tense five months on. For families who fled the fighting, school continues for most children in the displacement camps, but parents say education is fragmented while their lives are still so unsettled. Mothers at the Wat Bak Kam camp for the displaced in Preah Vihear province told Al Jazeera that primary school students can join classes at a local school, but high school students need to travel daily to the provincial capital, about 15km (9 miles) away. Families living temporarily at the Wat Bak Kam internal displacement camp sit outside their tents, supplied by Chinese government aid [Roun Ry/Al Jazeera] Now the rising cost of petrol, due to the US-Israel war on Iran, has made it even harder for teenaged students, who have access to motorcycles, to make the journey to school. Kinmai Phum, technical lead for WorldVision’s education programme, which is providing support to the camps, said school dropout rates and children skipping classes have increased substantially among students from the displaced border regions. Advertisement Kinmai Phum said the situation is a perfect storm of problems: Displaced families have been forced to move around for shelters, schools and temporary learning spaces lack facilities, and some students have psychological trauma due to the conflict. “Local authorities [are] concerned that many children may not return to school at all if displacement and economic hardship persist,” Kinmai Phum said. Puth Reen, left, and her three daughters sit inside their tent in a camp for the displaced at Wat Chroy Neang Ngourn in Siem Reap province [Roun Ry/Al Jazeera] Yuon Phally, a mother of two, said she had noticed the impact of the war on her daughter and son, who are in their first and third years in primary school. When they return from school, Yuon Phally said, they tell her about rumours they had heard about Cambodia and Thailand resuming fighting. “Their feeling is not fully focused on school; they focus more on these rumours,” she said. Her children’s world was more impacted by the conflict because their father is a soldier stationed in the Mom Bei area of the border. During the fighting in December, Yuon Phally said she could not convince her children to go to school because they all waited to see if their father would call on a mobile phone from the front line. “I couldn’t hold back my tears, and that added more pressure onto my kids,” she said. “They would ask about their dad and how he is doing now. Then they told me to eat rice. They understood my feelings.” She said her children’s focus on their studies only improved after their father

Iran war live: US expects Tehran’s reply to peace deal; ‘clashes’ in Hormuz

Iran war live: US expects Tehran’s reply to peace deal; ‘clashes’ in Hormuz

blinking-dotLive updatesLive updates, Israeli attacks killed at least 31 people in southern Lebanon on Friday, including a rescue worker, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said. Published On 9 May 20269 May 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)

Wife of retired IAS officer found dead in Hyderabad, police suspect domestic help behind incident

Wife of retired IAS officer found dead in Hyderabad, police suspect domestic help behind incident

Wife of retired IAS officer Vinay Ranjan, 55-year-old Sunanda, was found dead at the IAS Officers’ quarters in Hyderabad on Wednesday, , May 6, police said. According to Jubilee Hills Police, the body was found at the IAS quarters located in Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar. Senior police officials, including Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand, reached the spot and launched an investigation into the incident.