Van Hollen Adds Medicaid Fraud Investigator

MADISON - The Wisconsin Department of Justice recently added Jennifer Cramer as a Consumer Protection Investigator in the Medicaid Fraud Control and Elder Abuse Unit (MFCEAU). Investigator Cramer started April 26, 2010.

Jennifer is well suited to the position after working in an investigative capacity at both the Wisconsin Department Corrections and the Wisconsin Supreme Court Board of Bar Examiners. Additionally, Jennifer spent time as a Community Service Liaison for the City of Fitchburg and as an Assistant Professor in the Criminal Justice Program at Herzing College. Jennifer received her Bachelors and Masters Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Jennifer lives in Waunakee with her family.

The MFCEAU is an entire unit of lawyers and investigators dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of cases involving Medicaid fraud by service providers as well as elder abuse.  The problems may be either physical neglect or abusive behaviors, or in some cases financial exploitation. Efforts by this unit to protect the integrity of Wisconsin Medicaid have resulted in recoveries of over $40 million for the program since January 1, 2007.

"By rooting out fraudulent practices we can better protect limited resources so that we can provide medical assistance to those who genuinely need it," said Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.  "Wisconsin taxpayers have repeatedly shown they are more than willing to step up and provide for those who are less fortunate, but were not willing to line the pockets of those who would seek to defraud the program."

Van Hollen pointed to multi-state settlements in May that brought in over $4.5 million based on allegations of off-label marketing and payment of illegal kickbacks, and $7 million that was received in April as a result of the "Average Wholesale Price" (AWP) case being litigated in Dane County Circuit Court against 36 pharmaceutical manufacturers.  Since 2007 Wisconsin has recovered over $30.3 million in 21 such multi-state agreements, over $10 million in the AWP litigation, and obtained an order for another pharmaceutical manufacturer to pay over $22 million in damages, forfeitures and costs following a trial in the AWP litigation that is currently pending in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.