During an anti-fraud roundtable Wednesday, White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley outlined ten proposals aimed at combating fraud in welfare programs.
“Fraud steals taxpayer dollars, but such corruption steals something even more precious. It steals the blessings and benefits of work,” Haley said.
“The greater injustice is not stealing money from taxpayers,” he added. “It is taking purpose from another human being and diverting resources from the truly needy.”
Haley’s recommendations included proactive verification measures targeting both welfare beneficiaries and the establishments that accept government benefits.
Among his proposals, Haley called for ensuring that every Medicaid provider and SNAP retail store is “legitimate and eligible for payment” before receiving funds, rather than “paying first and checking later.”
He also proposed prohibiting “high-risk retailers such as some liquor stores and smoke shops from accepting taxpayer-funded food stamp benefits.”
Haley further recommended preventing improper Medicaid payments from being made after a beneficiary’s death, calling for Medicaid programs that pay health insurers on behalf of enrollees to immediately halt payments once a death is recorded and require insurers to return any funds collected after the enrollee’s death.
Other proposals focused on verifying recipient eligibility and preventing enrollee fraud. For example, he suggested requiring that enrollees have their immigration status verified. He also recommended ending the practice of self-attestation, instead requiring applicants to provide “proof of income and eligibility before benefits are approved.”
Haley also suggested “upgrad[ing] welfare benefit cards used for food and cash assistance to have secure chip technology with a photo and expiration date.”
Other recommendations included requiring “criminal background checks and fingerprinting for healthcare providers in categories with high rates of Medicaid fraud” and conducting monthly comparisons of welfare records “against death records, wage records, and incarceration records.”
Haley also suggested ending the practice of using “government-issued pre-populated forms to do automatic re-enrollments into Medicaid” and doubling the number of welfare fraud investigators.
“I suggest that members of Congress call out as corruption the behavior of state and local leaders who refuse to enforce common-sense fraud controls or purposely embrace loopholes that avoid individual eligibility validation, allow self-certification of eligibility, expand eligibility far beyond what Congress intended, and, as a result, trap millions of able-bodied adults into a life of dependency,” Haley said.
“Whenever public officials knowingly preserve systems that deny able-bodied Americans the blessings of work, whenever they choose to look away because dependency serves such interests, people suffer,” said Haley. “Not because they lack talent, not because they lack dignity, but because those entrusted with public authority failed to act.”
“Our responsibility is to root out fraud and corruption in our welfare systems, send people to jail who steal benefits, and make it impossible for public officials to escape their responsibility to establish systems of accountability and program integrity so that more Americans will realize the benefits and blessings of work,” Haley concluded.
Vice President J.D. Vance, who led the roundtable, urged members of Congress to codify anti-fraud measures into law, arguing that legislative action would help prevent the administration’s efforts from being undone in the future.
According to Vance, the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force has identified $230 billion worth of fraudulent funds that have been distributed through welfare programs and prevented an additional $56 billion from being improperly paid out.
Although only Republican lawmakers attended the roundtable, Vance said he hoped Democratic members of Congress would also be willing to participate in the effort to combat welfare fraud.
It’s time to take a serious look at the DHHS social workers who have been running amuck for the past 50 years. And they’re quite well paid, I looked one up and realized that she’s being paid $27,000 a year MORE than the Governor!
They are the ones stapling all of the “autism” labels on the children in the first place, they have no medical degree, and really unqualified to make these decisions, but do so anyway. And that’s where this whole thing started…
All laws coming out of Congress are crafted by crackhead staffers to invite fraud.
The so called “NGOs” that buffer ME DHHS from fraudulent companies need to be investigated also. I made a “mistake of reporting suspected home care fraud to DHHS and a few days later, the DHHS sent an investigator, unannounced, no appointment to investigate ME!
Turn all welfare disbursement back to the local towns overseen by people elected for only that purpose.
They are the ones that can see the local fraudsters practicing their craft.
While we’re innovating, about mandatory MINIMUM jail sentences for violators. Enhanced sentences for repeat offenders, and mandatory deportation of those immigrants who violate. Now there’s a set of novel concepts.
In an attempt to “get votes” our lawmakers have taken their eyes off the Ball. They ALL need to be voted out.
As a very dedicated grandfather of 2 wonderful grandchildren that’re on the spectrum, Mimi and I have been THE support to our son and his wife to help to care for these delightful kids. Not that we can really afford to but after what we’ve seen first hand we cannot afford not to.
Right beside their beautiful home is a very nice house owned by one of fraudsters. In that house lived a mid 20’s male adult who is definitely on the spectrum. Every day there were 5 or 6 beautifully nice new cars that come and go, some even parking on our kids lawn and driveway. The “Caregivers” are from the Congo, don’t speak a lick of English and allow the young man to do what ever he wants 24/7. The man’s mom has made unannounced visit to check on her son and has not been allowed into the house. on the one occasion that she did walk in, she was appalled to see the caregiver sound asleep on the couch with the TV on while her son sat in the same clothes he had been wearing for days smelling like he was homeless. ‘Caregiver’ my fat Italian @ss!
THEN! the mother pulled her son out. They continued to come hang out there for about a month before a new guy came in that was into fixing engines including chainsaws. DHHS was contacted and nothing happened. Surprised? Didn’t think so…… There is another young man there now that’s pretty quiet. The BS mentioned above hasn’t changed a bit.
If we manage to get past Shenna Bellows’ election fraud this next cycle and elect Bobby Charles, he needs to fire half of DHHS immediately. Most of them are there collecting what amounts to a welfare check for doing nothing. Those that are working are protecting migrants and criminals over the clients DHHS Maine is meant to serve. They’ve lost the plot.
Then he needs to push the Legislature to eliminate a third of the DHHS programs that are clearly not producing meaningful benefit.
That’d be about ALL of the addict-enabling ones. Drug policy in Maine is a joke.
There needs to be a huge push to replace grifting migrant-owned Medicaid providers with Heritage Mainer-owned providers. Start with the families of the recipients. I’m not sure why this wasn’t done in the first place.
Abolish Disability Rights Maine. Their focus is on accepting and enabling disability. We used to treat disability such that clients who were capable could gain the skills authentically integrate into their local communities on their own terms. We were also allowed to safeguard the severely intellectually disabled from predation and devolving into feral creatures that live in their own filth and excrement while engaging in aggressive and destructive behaviors that further isolate them.
Now, expecting growth, health, and pro-social behaviors is seen as mean, an infringement on “rights.”
Providers who would have been able to improve the lives of our most cognitively disabled now can’t, thanks to policies coming out of Disability Rights Maine.
It’s basically what Maine DOE has done to Maine students applied to Disability care. Feelings are more important than results.
Gen X Warrior knows.
That is exactly what is happening in these residential homes.
Filthy clients, laying around in unchanged clothes, often in soiled adult diapers, having not showered, not engaged in any meaningful activities to add enrichment to their lives.
But it’s okay cuz “That’s what the client wants to do! We can’t make them do anything.” Thank you, Disability Rights Maine.
Meanwhile the client is severely intellectually disabled with the cognitive capacity of a two year old. With an actual two year old, this care would be seen as neglect. With an elder who has dementia, same.
Both of the latter will likely change if Democrats remain in charge and Maine continues its slide into a third world standard of living.
As it is, you can’t report this stuff to Adult Protective Services. They’ll protect the migrant provider over the Medicaid clients. I’ve got proof of that.
ROFL! The BEST way to end “welfare fraud” is to END POVERTY. If we ALL had incomes as high as that of J.D. Vance, there would be NO poverty (& the gov’t could shrink considerably, for huge tax savings–hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats could be laid off w/ NO pain to themselves).
Personally if there’s any proof any politician was involved in the fraud of any kind the charges should include bribery, pay to play, theft of government fund’s, just for starting charges. Then severely fined and thrown in prison for a very long time.
“The greater injustice is not stealing money from taxpayers,” he added. “It is taking purpose from another human being and diverting resources from the truly needy.”
Wow, there’s a lot packed into that statement. “taking purpose” / diverting resources. Wow.