Posted on 03/10/2006 7:17:35 PM PST by vwunpimsmyride
U.S. senator wants to know why Medicaid funded sex operations
By Alicia Mundy Seattle Times Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — The head of the Senate Finance Committee wants Gov. Christine Gregoire to explain why the state's Medicaid system is paying for erectile implants, sex-change operations and breast enlargements.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said, in a letter sent Thursday to Gregoire, that he has asked the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to look at what he considers dubious expenses discovered in the state's 2004 audit.
Grassley, who led the charge in Congress against Medicaid payments for Viagra and other erectile-dysfunction drugs, said his staff members have interviewed Washington's auditor about issues the auditor raised in the 2004 audit.
"I am amazed by the state auditor's findings," Grassley wrote, citing $9,500 spent for gender-transformation surgery for a Medicaid patient; $40,000 on plastic surgery; and more than $100,000 on "unauthorized" breast implants.
However, the state Department of Social and Health Services has disputed some of the auditor's 2004 findings, said state Medicaid director Doug Porter. He noted that no gender-change surgery has been approved since 2001.
Almost all of the patients approved for penile implants were suffering from prostate cancer, and breast-augmentation operations were approved for women who had suffered breast cancer, he said.
"We are not turning Medicaid clients into supermodels," Porter said.
He did note that the agency and the auditor have had a "rocky relationship."
State Auditor Brian Sonntag said Grassley's staff called him in February shortly after news stories about controversial items he had challenged during the audit.
"It was our office's first time to be contacted by a member of Congress," Sonntag said. "I did appreciate the fact that someone cared."
The 2005 audit will include new questions about spending, Sonntag said. He declined to name those before the audit is released next week.
Federal spending for sex changes and sexual-performance enhancements are the kind of hot-button items that provoke ire in the Congress.
In October, Grassley led a Senate vote to prohibit Medicare and Medicaid from footing the bill for Viagra and other erectile-dysfunction drugs starting this year.
Now, Grassley's staff wants to know how costs for more invasive procedures such as penile implants had been justified by DSHS, which oversees Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals.
Sonntag has also complained publicly that his investigations were stymied by a lack of documentation from DSHS showing that the procedures were medically required and formally approved — a concern Grassley echoed.
"I am troubled by the [state] Department of Social and Health Service's alleged resistance to requests from the State Auditor's Office for access to records to determine if Medicaid funds were misspent," Grassley wrote.
However, Sonntag said his interactions with DSHS have vastly improved in the last year.
He also noted Washington was not the only state billing Medicaid for sexual-performance surgeries and gender transplants.
Gregoire did not comment on Grassley's letter, which she had not seen as of Thursday afternoon.
Alicia Mundy: 202-662-7457 or amundy@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company
yea, that's the one...didn't he go through the operation?
I honestly don't know. I haven't seen that prison guard....in almost a year and a half. I lost contact with him after our training schedules changed.
If those hormone shots were in preparation for an operation...then it may have happened. I don't know much about morbid transgender stuff.
Yeah, I knew all of you up in NJ were into some really bizarre crap! :-)
When all elective procedures become entitlements there can be zero control of costs.
The problem arises when the parents are not willing to "lean towards allowing" but preempt the decision. In the hope of self-fulfilling prophecy they treat the child as either boy or girl. Severe psychological stress and damage often result. If the kid decides in young adulthood that it feels trapped in a wrong-gender body - where do you apply objectivist moralism to permit or deny a gender change? Really, it's only a "change" because someone else made a premature determination.
I know you're trying to have a principled discussion here about treating the transgerderd, but...
...why shouldn't they be told by government to go screw themselves, just like everyone else? Wouldn't they be better equipped than most to execute the command?
Equal rights under the law...
It's sorta like Somalia---started as humanitarian aid, transformed into nation-building.
I think so---somebody saw Dr Petillo in Victoria's Secret buying 44D lace push-up bras and several satin teddies. I guess the tax-paid ba**ectomy and chest implants were a big success.
Yeah, now our secret is out.
I'm really Coleus and Coleus is really Calpernia.
But don't tell anyone ;)
But Liz, Dr. Petillo has a 12 point reform plan!
Seriously though, UMDNJ has a lot of loose, odd affiliations/partnerships/business relations with hundreds and hundreds of facilities.
I wonder if this is how other entities apply for their foundation monies/grants and then UMDNJ uses their creative billing to charge for the procedures.
Just pondering.
The UMDNJ Medicare/Aid fraud went from $5 million and is now approaching $75 million ----and counting.
There are zillions of ways the UMDNJ thieves could
have looted Medicare/Aid, and pocketed the proceeds, and/or rerouted Medicare/Aid funds to unauthorized uses.
With computer programs it takes a nanosecond to enter fraudulent payees and check amounts, then change them back to authorized vendors when the feds come calling.
Petillo would have ordered checks be signed without question.
I remember awhile back that it was discovered that Viagra was being legally sold to pedophiles! And Medicare was paying for a lot of it as well.
Can you imagine? The public got wind of this and came unglued!!!
The crooks always make a mistake.
The "break-ins" at UMDNJ supposedly took care of destroying evidence in the govt affairs office, but now Christy Davis-Jackson former VP for UMDNJ government affairs is under criminal indictment along with her co-conspirators....er, I mean, her co-workers.
BTW, Davis-Jackson is married to Rev Reginald Jackson, president of the Black Ministers' Council---both are recipients of candidate Corzine's (gag) benevolence.
Jon's motto is "Here's a check, gimme a vote."
I did see those articles about viagra.
VERY sick and scary times.
Did you see my notes I added to this thread?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1593821/posts
bump!
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