Medicaid Fraud Needs an Audit, Not a Review of the Games
Suspicion can start an investigation. It should not be asked to do all the remaining work as well.
The story
Fox News reports that Mehmet Oz visited New York adult-care centres over suspected Medicaid fraud.
Source: www.foxnews.com
Our reading
An audit has several inconvenient requirements: records, comparisons, patient work and conclusions that can survive a less exciting second look. A publicity moment has the considerable advantage of being finished by the time the camera leaves.
A game of mahjong makes a memorable detail. It does not, by itself, reconcile an invoice. That distinction is less photogenic, which may explain why paperwork rarely gets its own dramatic entrance.
There is a perfectly serious question here about public money. The useful response is to establish what was billed, what was provided and what the evidence supports. The entertaining response is to look disapprovingly at the room. Only one of these approaches can be completed without opening a file.
Investigations deserve scrutiny. So does the presentation of investigations as an event whose conclusion the audience is invited to supply.
The camera can confirm that somebody arrived. The accounts still need checking.