State Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit recognized for its work

The U.S. Inspector General has nominated the Pennsylvania Office Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for an excellence award.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the nomination Wednesday.

“Our robust Medicaid Fraud Control Unit works hard every day to root out fraud, neglect, and abuse in the Commonwealth,” Shapiro said in a statement. “We are proud of the work they have accomplished in a short amount of time and honored by the nomination of the Inspector General’s award.”

Medicaid is the federal and state program that provides health coverage for the poor, elderly and those with disabilities.

In 2018, the unit participated in more than 60 joint investigations with the U.S. Office of Inspector General and netted 164 arrests and 105 convictions. The unit also recovered more than $22 million.

One of those 2018 cases included Kenneth Banks, 69, a York County therapist and behavior specialist, who was charged with Medicaid fraud for submitting false educational credentials and not disclosing his full criminal history before taking a job working with children.

Banks was sentenced this past week to eight years, Shapiro’s office said.

Under the direction of Chief Deputy Attorney General Laurie Malone, Pennsylvania’s unit employs 68 attorneys, investigators and auditors, among others, who investigate fraud, waste and abuse.