Hawaii AG defends office after Vance Medicaid criticism

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaii’s attorney general is responding to criticism over the state’s efforts to combat Medicaid fraud.

Read more First Alert Forecast: Tracking blustery trades to continue

Attorney General Anne Lopez joined a federal Medicaid fraud task force roundtable Tuesday hosted by Vice President J.D. Vance, alongside attorneys general from several other states.

During the discussion, Vance criticized Hawaiʻi’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, saying it has not pursued criminal prosecutions in recent years.

Lopez acknowledged improvements could be made, but said criminal indictments are not the only measure of success.

“We could do better with our indictments and our criminal prosecutions and I will acknowledge that,” Lopez said. “If that’s your only metric for measuring efficacy though you are missing a large portion of the work that our offices do.”

Several Democratic attorneys general also criticized how the meeting was organized, saying they received notice less than a day before the event.

Read more ‘Where it all started’: Recovering addict returns to Hawaii for Half Ironman

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the short notice raised concerns about whether Democratic-led states were intended to fully participate.

“The short notice we were given sends a clear message that we were either an afterthought or we weren’t really welcome,” Bonta said.

Vance said Medicaid fraud prevention should not be treated as a partisan issue.

“This should not be a partisan effort,” Vance said. “Everybody should care about fraud, everybody should care about rooting out fraud, everybody should care about saving the American taxpayers money.”

Democratic attorneys general also argued the Trump administration has reduced oversight resources by cutting programs and inspector positions tied to fraud investigations.

Read more Red Hill Registry seeks community feedback to boost enrollment