WCDO Radio News

Congressman Marc Molinaro announced details for a Telephone Town Hall he will host on Wednesday, at 11:00am to help Upstate New York seniors navigate the Medicare Open Enrollment Period. On the call, Molinaro will be joined by experts from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Elevance, a Medicare provider. To sign up to receive a call for Rep. Molinaro's Telephone Town Hall, fill out the form at molinaro.house.gov/forms by 5:00 pm today, Seniors can also listen in by calling (833) 560 2070.

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, the Otsego County Sheriff's Office & The Oneonta Police Department announced the arrests of 3 people of Phinaliz Communications LLC, who are accused of operating a long-running scheme to steal over $1 million from the Medicaid program. The 3 defendants were identified as 46 year old Philip Mtui of Mechanicsville, who owns the company, operations manager Mbaga Kaiza, and Dispatcher & Driver Tony Taylor, who were arrested last Thursday. Over a 4-year period, Mtui and Kaiza defrauded the Medicaid program by claiming payment for rides that never occurred, and double, triple, or quadruple billing for rides that did occur. Mtui and Kaiza were arraigned in Oneonta City Court for 1st degree Grand Larceny, both were held on $250,000 bail. Taylor was arrested on 1 count of conspiracy, he will be arraigned on September 19th, more arrests are expected.

The State Comptroller's Office audited the state Department of Health, reporting that they need to make sure that they get the drug rebates that it is entitled to under federal regulations. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said that the largest portion of money left on the table was $109.4 million in rebates, following an error on 490,875 claims that incorrectly showed that no Medicaid payment had been made, making them ineligible for rebates, another mistake with Magellan resulted in missing out on $9.6 million in rebates.