In four years ferreting out TennCare fraud, the Office of Inspector General has now arrested one-thousand people. It hit that mark Tuesday when officers arrested two women in Cookeville who forged prescriptions for hydrocodone.
Since the Office of Inspector General was set up in 2005, $2.6 million has been paid in restitution to the program. But Inspector General Deborah Faulkner says the big-ticket savings for the state is in getting fraudulent patients off the TennCare rolls.
“We are looking at about $171 million in potential savings on individuals we’ve identified who perhaps do not need to be on the program.”
More than three-quarters of the arrests have been for fraudulent prescriptions or selling painkillers. And nearly one in ten of the charges is for “doctor shopping” and getting prescriptions from multiple physicians.
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