Auditor General Uncovers Numerous Troubles with Dept. of Community Health

A 94-year-old nursing home resident was held in a "hammerlock" position so she could not move while a Medicaid provider forced her to give an impression for dentures. She had been without teeth for 50 years and didn't want them. When she left the exam room, her face, neck and dress were covered with impression plaster.

That anecdote is buried in the nearly 300-page report from the State of Michigan's Auditor General released last month. The report cited many problems it found in its bi-annual review of the Department of Community Health.

Scott Strong, a spokesman for the Auditor General, said the Department of Community Health had been warned during two previous years and didn't sanction that problematic provider, breaking state and federal laws by not doing so.

In fact, Strong said despite a "significant history" of health, safety, welfare and billing violations that go back as far as 1994, the provider was still allowed to be enrolled in Medicaid. Strong said this provider collected more than $2 million after the Department of Community Health was warned...

A 94-year-old nursing home resident was held in a "hammerlock" position so she could not move while a Medicaid provider forced her to give an impression for dentures.

Huh. Well, several things:

I didn't realize Medicaid covered dentures.

The hellish fact of the matter is that those restraining this poor woman doubtless held a genuine belief that they were "helping". OTOH, you can't very well bill for dentures if no dentures were provided--so...look, lady, you are getting these dentures, no matter what.

This is pathetic. If the little old lady was so adamant in her uncooperativeness, she should have been allowed to refuse the procedure. Either she could not understand the reason for the dental impression, or, she decided, at age 94, that she really likes pureed food.

I beg to differ with Janet Olszewski's take that this is not "waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement" by the provider.

Well, ok, I guess I see what she meant. But, I would say it borders on malpractice. Mmmmm...intentional torts... assult...battery...no privilege

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