Despite Nick Shirley’s spotlight on Minnesota and the rampant waste fraud and abuse occurring there, we always knew that we would find more of the same in every blue state and red state across the country. And now, thanks to the conservative news site The Daily Wire, we’re taking a serious look at the Republican state of Ohio, where investigative journalist Luke Rosiak has uncovered gobsmacking amounts of welfare fraud.
In his first entry in this new series, Rosiak writes: “DOGE published a massive trove of data in February that, for the first time, lets the public see what companies are billing Medicaid for. For decades, the payouts have been shrouded in secrecy. One of the largest government programs was a black box. I’ve spent the past two months diving into the numbers. What I found was the most blatant waste of federal dollars that I have encountered in my two decades as an investigative reporter.”
What Rosiak found was that Ohio places no limit whatsoever on the amount of money that a home healthcare provider can bill to the state. What this means in practice is that tons of people are presenting themselves as healthcare workers who provide a very specific service, performing homemaking services like cooking and cleaning, for elderly patients. Here’s the catch: These patients are their own elderly relatives. This means, of course, we have no idea if any legitimate services are being provided…