Sarah Palin’s Medicaid Scandal: Letting People Die While Waiting

The Anchorage Daily News just broke a story about a scandal in Alaska’s administration of its Medicaid program. It seems federal auditors have suspended new entry into the program because of gross mismanagement by Alaska officials that was leaving hundreds untreated and may have resulted in over 200 deaths while patients were waiting for treatment.

State programs intended to help disabled and elderly Alaskans with daily life — taking a bath, eating dinner, getting to the bathroom — are so poorly managed, the state cannot assure the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to serve, a new federal review found.

The situation is so bad the federal government has forbidden the state to sign up new people until the state makes necessary improvements.

No other state in the nation is under such a moratorium, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

In the meantime, frail and vulnerable Alaskans who desperately need the help are struggling. One elderly woman is stuck in a nursing home, for lack of care at home. Another woman, suffering from chronic pain and fatigue, said she’s so weak, she often can’t even pop dinner into the microwave.

The moratorium is expected to last four or five months. State officials estimate about 1,000 Alaskans will be affected.

A particularly alarming finding concerns deaths of adults in the programs. In one 2 1/2 year stretch, 227 adults already getting services died while waiting for a nurse to reassess their needs. Another 27 died waiting for their initial assessment, to see if they qualified for help.

And get this. The federal auditors notified Alaska officials on June 26, nearly three weeks ago. And there had already been half dozen lawsuits filed before that. But we didn’t hear a peep out of Governor Sarah Palin about this scandal while she was explaining why she’s bailing out or going fishing.