Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office is looking for a new director to lead the state’s Healthcare Crimes Unit at a moment when Maine’s Medicaid system is facing intense scrutiny from federal officials, lawmakers and investigators over allegations of fraud and millions of dollars in questioned payments.
The timing raises an obvious question: Why now?
The Attorney General’s Office posted the Assistant Attorney General position on July 28, seeking an attorney to serve as director of the Healthcare Crimes Unit, which is Maine’s federally designated Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Applications closed Aug. 11.
The salary range is $71,843 to $139,110 annually.
Importantly, this is not the creation of a brand-new fraud unit. The Healthcare Crimes Unit already exists, and the advertised job is for its director. The unit investigates and prosecutes financial fraud committed by Medicaid providers and their employees and handles cases involving abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of people receiving care. It also brings civil actions against providers and participates in joint state-federal investigations.
According to Frey’s office, the director supervises two assistant attorneys general, a forensic accountant, investigators and a paralegal while also carrying an independent caseload.
But after months of warnings about MaineCare oversight, federal investigations and increasingly pointed criticism from Washington, the vacancy also presents another question for Frey: Where has the Attorney General been?
Reporter Went Directly to Frey’s Office Seeking Answers
The Maine Wire has not limited its questions to emails or phone calls.
On Wednesday, this reporter went directly to the Maine Attorney General’s Office in Augusta seeking answers about the Healthcare Crimes Unit director position and the state’s ongoing fraud enforcement efforts.
This reporter also sought information about the Attorney General’s investigation into approximately 250 ballots that turned up in Newburgh in an Amazon box, another investigation about which significant questions remain.
A staff member at the Attorney General’s Office assured this reporter that someone would respond to the questions.
As of publication, no response has been received.
The Maine Wire will update this story if Frey’s office responds.
The lack of a response comes as this reporter has repeatedly attempted to engage Maine’s highest-ranking state officials about issues ranging from suspected healthcare fraud to other investigations carrying significant public interest.
Federal officials have been sounding the alarm
Vice President JD Vance traveled to Bangor in May and publicly accused Maine’s government of failing to adequately confront fraud in its Medicaid program.
“What you have in Maine is a festering problem where people have been taken advantage of and they’ve been stolen from and your government hasn’t done anything about it,” Vance said during the May appearance.
Vance also singled out The Maine Wire’s fraud reporting during his Bangor appearance, publicly recognizing reporters Jon Fetherston and Steve Robinson.
Yet Frey did not use the high-profile visit to publicly announce a major new statewide Medicaid fraud crackdown.
Federal scrutiny has continued.
Federal agents have descended on Maine healthcare providers as investigations involving taxpayer-funded services have expanded.
Gateway Community Services has separately faced state scrutiny. Maine suspended MaineCare payments to Gateway after audits and allegations involving its billing practices.
Those are not merely political talking points. They are documented government actions.
And when federal Homeland Security investigators became involved with Gateway Community Services, Frey remained publicly quiet.
That silence is increasingly difficult to square with an Attorney General’s Office whose own Healthcare Crimes Unit is specifically tasked with investigating Medicaid provider fraud and protecting vulnerable residents from abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Dr. Oz came to Maine looking for answers
The federal attention intensified this month when Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz traveled to Maine as part of the Trump administration’s scrutiny of Medicaid fraud and improper payments.
Oz met with former Republican Gov. Paul LePage and spoke with The Maine Wire during his visit.
That leads to another question for Frey’s office: Why not talk to the people who have spent months investigating the providers, billing patterns and businesses now attracting federal attention?
The Attorney General’s own website asks members of the public who suspect MaineCare fraud, abuse, neglect or exploitation to report it directly to the Healthcare Crimes Unit.
The Maine Wire has been reporting on those very issues.
This reporter has also now made nine trips to Gov. Janet Mills’ office seeking answers and offering information concerning suspected fraud and the providers involved.
The response from the governor and her staff has been silence.
If state officials truly want to identify fraud, why not pick up the phone?
Call The Maine Wire.
Call Dr. Oz.
Call the federal investigators already working cases in Maine.
Why wasn’t this a priority in May?
The timing deserves scrutiny.
If healthcare fraud in Maine is serious enough that the Attorney General’s Office needs a director overseeing prosecutors, investigators and a forensic accountant devoted to the issue, where was the urgency when Vance came to Bangor in May?
Where was it as federal investigators began scrutinizing Maine providers?
Where was the public explanation when questions surrounding Gateway Community Services intensified?
And why has Maine’s attorney general remained largely silent while federal officials have increasingly raised questions about the integrity of taxpayer-funded healthcare programs in the state?
Those are questions Frey should answer before Mainers are expected to view the hiring as evidence that Augusta is suddenly serious about fraud.
The Maine Wire has not established that the vacancy itself is politically motivated. It may ultimately prove to be a routine personnel matter.
But Frey’s office should explain that.
It should disclose how long the director position has been vacant, why it became vacant and whether filling it is connected to the escalating state and federal scrutiny of MaineCare providers.
Taxpayer cost is only part of the story
There is another important detail about the Attorney General’s Healthcare Crimes Unit: Maine taxpayers do not shoulder its entire cost.
According to Frey’s office, the unit receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with the state responsible for the remaining 25 percent.
That makes the issue larger than whether Maine should employ another prosecutor.
The question is whether Maine’s existing fraud-enforcement apparatus has been aggressive enough with the authority, investigators and federal resources it already possesses.
The Attorney General already has a federally supported Healthcare Crimes Unit.
It already has investigators.
It already has prosecutors.
And Maine has already had warnings.
So before taxpayers are told that filling the director’s chair represents a renewed commitment to fighting healthcare fraud, Frey should explain what his office has been doing with the cases, referrals and warning signs already before it.
“I’ll work for free, Mr. Attorney General”
If Maine officials genuinely want help identifying questionable providers, billing practices and taxpayer-funded operations, they do not have to look very far.
This reporter will even make the offer simpler:
I’ll work for free, Mr. Attorney General.
Because the money matters. Every dollar fraudulently taken from MaineCare is a dollar provided by taxpayers and intended for people who legitimately need healthcare and support services.
But the potential human cost is worse.
The Healthcare Crimes Unit is responsible not only for financial fraud but also for investigating and prosecuting abuse, neglect and financial exploitation involving some of Maine’s most vulnerable residents.
If people are being abused or neglected while public money is being improperly collected in their names, that is not merely a bookkeeping problem.
It is a human one.
And if government officials possessed the authority and resources to intervene but failed to act aggressively, Mainers deserve to know why.
Filling a vacant position may be necessary.
It is not, by itself, an answer.
The Maine Wire has asked Frey’s office for one.
As of publication, despite an in-person visit Wednesday and an assurance that someone would respond, none has come.
The Maine Wire will update this article if the Attorney General’s Office responds.
When the phone doesn’t ring you’ll know it’s either the Mill’s administration or Arron Frey responding to your questions.
In the meantime just relax and have another coffee there getting to you. Frey is busy banging the help and mills is having margaritas on the beach somewhere.