| have applied for Medicaid in the State of New | | | | income eligibility guidelines at the time of their |
| York, and particularly in New York City, and | | | | application who failed to report their changed |
| misrepresented facts regarding your income and | | | | income. |
| assets on your application, beware. You may | | | | In most cases, investigators catch you before |
| become another target of relentless and massive | | | | you know of any investigation at all. They build |
| hunt for fraudsters. | | | | their file before you hear from them. By the time |
| The new initiative that started a few years ago | | | | you receive a letter from an investigative agency |
| across the state has netted thousands of | | | | asking you to come to their office for an |
| Medicaid recipients who had received Medicaid | | | | "interview" and to bring along certain |
| fraudulently. | | | | documentation, the investigation is practically |
| As a New York Medicaid Fraud defense lawyer, I | | | | completed. If you receive such letter, you should |
| receive calls weekly from people contacted by | | | | seek legal advice immediately before discussing |
| New York City Bureau of Fraud Investigation and | | | | anything with investigators. If you chose to go to |
| other agencies that routinely investigate New | | | | the interview and voluntarily submit requested |
| York Medicaid fraud. As a program recipient, you | | | | information, you may be confessing to having |
| may and probably will be investigated for fraud if | | | | committed a crime and your case will be soon |
| you lie on your Medicaid application. Usually, that | | | | sent to the local District Attorney's Office for |
| has to do with concealing income and assets. | | | | criminal prosecution. Once the investigation is |
| Virtually every person I have dealt with who had | | | | completed and the case is referred to another |
| been investigated for Medicaid fraud had indicated | | | | agency for criminal prosecution, it is much more |
| that their income was significantly less than it | | | | difficult and expensive to salvage the situation. |
| really was or that they had no assets that would | | | | At the investigative stage of the case, the most |
| have disqualified them from receiving Medicaid | | | | optimal resolution of is avoiding prosecution and |
| while they in fact had such assets. I have seen | | | | your chances of a favorable outcome increase |
| people investigated for Medicaid fraud in New | | | | dramatically if you deal with the investigative |
| York who had own substantial real estate and | | | | agency early and in the right way, though your |
| other assets and were clearly ineligible for the | | | | attorney. |
| program. However, I have also seen those within | | | | |