Trump's Medicaid Tech Overhaul

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gerard Simca, an attorney and he's with the Consumer Action
for Strong for a Strong Economy. Now, I wanted to
chat with him about something that was a huge debate
item here a couple of months ago in this country,
and that is is medicaid and the freight fraud, waste
and abuse that is rampant, and how we can address that. Gerard,

(00:25):
good morning. Good to have you on.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good morning, Gerry, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
You bet And I noticed that you wrote a piece
about what President Trump is trying to do and this
is new and he's embracing technology in all areas of
the bureaucracy, and he's going to start with medicaid. Right,
what's he going to do?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, there's a lot a lot going on, and I
think you started off with the most important thing. That
is that the administration, unlike to say the Biden administration,
which was bottling up technology, is going to be using
more and cutting edge data technologies to number one, see
if the taxpayer's money. The number two also make these
government programs run much more efficiently. We know that over

(01:11):
the last twenty years, the GAO has accounted for about
almost three trillion dollars of our national debt is from waste,
fraud and really over payments and improper payments. Just in
the last two years, that number is four hundred billion dollars.
So when you look at medicaid as one of the

(01:31):
biggest contributors to it, and that's also you know, a
state problem as well as a federal government problem since
they each contribute.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
So what does a techfix look like for Medicaid?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, I'd never play myself to be a tech wizard,
but what we do know is that there's the key
thing is that the innovation is going on in the
private industry. Private companies like EPIC and unite US and
a bunch of others that are starting up. These are
companies that started off normally handling software for hospitals, doctors,

(02:06):
and Medicare and medicaids. So they've now moved into AI
and we're seeing that when they are working with the states,
they've already for a handful of states that have embraced
these new technologies, they're saving them tens of million dollars
a month. And they're just getting started through getting rid

(02:28):
of overpayments, checking eligibility requirements, checking that people who know
the Trump administration has now added with a Big Beautiful Bill,
added some work requirements and some verifications that weren't on
there previously. So the other benefit is that with the

(02:49):
streamlining of the records and other data and all the
information that doctors have to deal with, it's making the
offices and the facilities run much more efficient because less
times being spent handling, manipulating, passing data around. And it's
just it's creating a lot more efficiencies as far as

(03:11):
the use of their time. So hopefully, you know, we
all been to the doctor and uh sat there for
you know, watch new magazines come in as we're sitting there,
and so we know that they themselves are kind of
really realizing this just we're just getting started to These
are really a lot of pilot programs, so there was

(03:35):
a benefit for patients, for taxpayers, and you know, all
these things will trickle into other parts of the government
as well as the private sector. But unlike again the
previous administration that was really bottling up these technologies, you know,
we're finally catching up.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Well, it's interesting. One of the one of the complaints
when the Big Beautiful Bill debate was going on about
medic was that this is going to make it very
difficult for people who actually legitimately qualify for Medicaid. These
work requirements specifically are going to make it difficult for
these people to comply. Will technology help that piece? I mean,

(04:16):
I don't think anybody wants legitimate Medicaid recipients to be
hurt or to have their benefits delayed. No.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Absolutely, it will actually do the opposite because when you
have much more accurate data and records, the people that
do qualify, who have paid into it, or who meet
eligibility requirements, are not going to be denied. What really
is is, you know, the Democrats were complaining because if
you look at the Blue states, there's seven Blue states

(04:45):
right now that the administration is almost they're considering a
lawsuit against them just because of how they use the
Medicaid money that they get. They're using it on people
who aren't actually eligible, a lot of that being immigrants.
The you know, California of course is the biggest. You know,

(05:05):
we would say abuser of this uh this kind of
eligibility uh, but you know they don't want to uh
anyone looking at their books that they're complaining because they
don't want the program to be more actually more efficient
and help the people that it's supposed to help, which
is you know, which is you and citizens or immigrants

(05:28):
who do meet the requirements. So they're just trying to
really give it to everybody, you know who who walks
in the walks in the door, and that's not how
the program's supposed to work, and that's not the law.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Very good, Gerard, thanks for the time this morning. Where
can people access your writing on this.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
We are at CASEFO consumers dot org and on social
media at case Underscore for America.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Very good. Appreciate you coming on. That's Gerard semaca consumer
action for a strong long economy.