The welfare fraud exposés are coming so thick and fast it’s hard to keep up. The latest one is from Maine.
State Sen. Matt Harrington (R-33rd District) is celebrating after his state finally suspended MaineCare payments to Gateways Community Services over allegations of significant welfare fraud. Gov. Janet Mills (D) finally took action after weeks of Harrington’s reports. “It’s about time funding be shut off. This must be fully and thoroughly investigated now!” the senator wrote.
Between March 2021 and December 2022, Gateways Community Services reportedly overbilled Maine’s Medicaid by more than a million dollars. Multiple audits identified the welfare fraud, hence the state and federal scrutiny.
Harrington’s last update was several days ago, when he announced that the “U.S. House Oversight Committee is seeking detailed bank records tied to Gateway Community Services and individuals connected to it as a result of alleged abuses of Maine’s welfare system. This is indicative of an expanding federal investigation into welfare fraud that stretches from Minnesota into Maine.”
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As I noted above, Harrington has been trying to call attention to Gateways Community Services for a while, but until the Minnesota Somali fraud scandal exploded, his accusations did not garner much attention. Now that the federal government is looking into allegations of fraud, some state governments are grudgingly admitting they have a problem.
The state senator accused, “Long before this story received national attention, I called on Governor Mills and state leaders to investigate Gateway Community Services after a whistleblower exposed troubling billing practices that may have defrauded MaineCare. Maine state government needs to be honest and accountable to Maine taxpayers. Welfare fraud strips resources from Maine families that truly need our safety net.”
Harrington encouraged anyone who believes he has evidence of Medicaid billing fraud to contact the U.S. House Oversight Committee as it moves forward with its investigation into the corrupt non-profit. Unsurprisingly, the Democrats who dominate Maine’s state government are not interested in investigating the fraud and only halted the payments to Gateways Community Services after they couldn’t ignore the problem any longer. Trust Democrats to cover up for criminals.
The sketchy “nonprofit’s” website claims:
Gateways Community Services is a non-profit corporation created in 1981 to establish and maintain programs and services which promote growth and independence for individuals with developmental disabilities. Gateways delivers services to nearly 3,000 individuals with disabilities, families coping with autism, and seniors in need of care.
And defrauding taxpayers, apparently.
The sobering reality is that state and federal fraud is probably beyond all of our wildest imaginations. I have spent most of this year dealing with the aftermath of someone stealing my identity to take out federal student loans in my name, and that type of fraud increased under Joe Biden. Welfare fraud is rampant — we found that out after the government shutdown. There are hundreds of thousands of double-dippers and dead people being issued SNAP benefits.
The investigations and cleanup can’t come soon enough.
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