Mehek Cooke, attorney and Republican National Committee surrogate, joined NTD to discuss the Trump administration’s withholding nearly $260 million in Medicaid payments to Minnesota until an investigation is completed, and implementing a nationwide moratorium on Medicare enrollment for certain medical equipment suppliers, in response to Medicare fraud draining billions of dollars from American taxpayers.
Cooke also discussed how the fraud proliferated over many years. Medical doctors have been rubber-stamping paperwork for Medicaid for people who do not need it, which Cooke says is prevalent in Minnesota’s second-largest Somali community in Columbus. She says the fraudsters are getting $75,000 to $90,000 per individual, and up to $250,000 for multiple individuals, who did not need home health care. Cooke says approvals are not double-checked, audits are not occurring, and kickbacks are being given to providers.
Cooke called for auditing, pausing a wide number of programs, and creating a website for companies on a fraud alert. She said the biggest red flag for fraud is when one service starts to exceed everything else. Cooke also discussed her research in knocking on doors of home health care services to investigate, and being cornered and threatened by four Somali men for asking questions. She says her objective is for the Trump administration to stop payments in Ohio until there are complete audits of what is happening in the state.