Governor creates Health Care Fraud Elimination Task Force

 

From Illinois Business Journal news services

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed an executive order creating the Health Care Fraud Elimination Task Force, aimed at prevention and elimination of health care fraud, waste and abuse in taxpayer-funded programs.

Rauner made today’s announcement at the Annual Ethics Officer Conference, hosted by the Executive Ethics Commission.

“Reducing fraud and waste is critical in state government to ensure we are delivering the best value to consumers and taxpayers,” Rauner said. “For the first time, we are bringing program-specific and agency efforts together to collaborate and take a multi-pronged approach to preventing and eliminating fraud, waste and abuse.”

The Task Force will study and utilize the best practices of these agency fraud prevention units, the efforts of the federal government and other state governments, and those in the private sector.

The costs of state-administered health-care programs are driven up when abuse of the system goes unchecked. Annually, Illinois spends more than $19 billion on state-administered Medicaid programs and the State Employee Group Health Insurance Programs.

The Executive Inspector General Maggie Hickey will serve as chairman of the Task Force, which will be made up of the following representatives:

• Deputy governor
• Chief compliance officer
• Special counsel and policy advisor to the governor for Healthcare and Human Services
• Inspector general for the Department of Healthcare and Family Services
• Director of the State Police Medicaid Fraud Control Unit
• Director of the Department on Aging
• Director of the Department of Central Management Services
• Director of the Department of Healthcare and Family Services
• Secretary of the Department of the Human Services
• Secretary of the Department of Information Technology
Director of the Department of Insurance