Providers push back on Medicaid inquiries

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission's Office of Inspector General is trying to reclaim hundreds of millions in misspent Medicaid money. But after months of investigations, more medical providers are saying publicly that they have been wrongly targeted. They say a controversial federal rule that allows the inspector general to stanch the flow of Medicaid payments as it pursues fraud investigations is crippling businesses, denying providers due process and harming patients by jeopardizing the state's limited network of Medicaid providers. Doug Wilson, the Health and Human Services inspector general who is leading the investigations, cannot legally discuss specific cases, but he said that his staff was targeting prosperous providers.