New Mexico Attorney General Strikes Blow Against Identity Theft

June 1 , 2007 -- (SANTA FE, NM) -- New Mexico Attorney General King is beefing up his office’s resources to aggressively prosecute elderly abuse cases.

The AG has named Elizabeth Staley as the new Director of the Medicaid Elder Abuse and Fraud Division. Ms. Staley is a felony prosecutor with more than15 years of experience in health law and Medicaid compliance. She was previously employed by the Department of Health and the UNM Health Sciences Center. In addition, as a former Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Staley prosecuted health professionals in front of professional licensing boards.

Attorney General King says, “Elizabeth Staley is the perfect choice to head up our efforts to combat physical abuse of seniors. She combines expertise as a felony prosecutor with years of experience in health law. Today I am sending a strong signal to Medicaid providers that I am beefing up our role as the watchdog.”

As part of these reforms, the Division will:

* Recruit investigators trained in investigating elderly abuse

* Conduct outreach and training for other law enforcement agencies that sometimes are called out to investigate senior facilities, and

* Take a more active approach in referring gross misconduct to the Medical Boards for license revocation of Nurses and Physicians

“During the campaign I made a promise to get tough on protecting our senior citizens,” says the Attorney General. This re-organization will help oversee treatment for the elderly and the mentally disabled to protect them from physical abuse.”

This re-organization comes on the heels of last year’s audit by the Inspector General of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The audit concluded that the Medicaid Fraud Division, under the previous administration, had not met all Federal grant regulations and policies that govern funding for the unit. Those problems have been addressed and Federal approval is expected.

Source: New Mexico Attorney General