Nearly two-thirds of the lawyers for Texas’ Civil Medicaid Fraud Division have quit under Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to former staffers. This departure will leave the unit less equipped to weed out fraud and abuse in the state’s Medicaid system. For more than two decades, the elite team of lawyers at the Texas attorney general’s office fought the biggest pharmaceutical companies and managed to recover $2.6 billion in ill-gotten funds, with $1 billion going to the state’s general fund, which finances essential services such as education and healthcare. However, in the last year, nearly two-thirds of the team’s lawyers have left, reducing its staff to its smallest size since Paxton took office. The departure was initiated by the ouster of the Civil Medicaid Fraud Division’s longtime leader, a move that was surprising to his team.
Despite some replacements, the division has seen a significant decrease in staff numbers, with the entire team representing a combined 180 years of experience with the attorney general’s office leaving. This hollowing out occurred following the controversial dismissal of the division’s beloved leader. The reduced staff numbers in the division are a sign of a state agency in crisis. Paxton’s agency has faced several operational struggles, and he himself has been the subject of a whistleblower lawsuit and a securities fraud investigation. The Civil Medicaid Fraud Division is important because it brings in a significant amount of money. Despite these challenges, it is too early to determine how the division’s ability to secure financial settlements will be impacted by the loss of experienced attorneys. The division will need to try to regain lost ground as Medicaid fraud cases can take years to complete. Last fiscal year, the division only opened 56 cases, the lowest number since at least 2013.
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