Jill Burke

Alaska's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has stumbled onto the case of a tax assessor who allegedly bilked Medicaid out of $60,000 after the assessor's ex-husband blew the whistle on his former wife.

The man told investigators that his ex-wife, Lorie Nabong Batac, 36, had been billing Medicaid for taking care of her dad and step-mom but wasn't putting in the hours charged, according to information about the alleged crime filed by Alaska's Department of Law.

Batac's ex-husband claimed the couple's teenage son was actually doing the work. When Medicaid’s fraud- control investigators looked into it, they say they found evidence Batac had double- and triple-billed her time...

With salmon beginning their annual migration back from the sea into Alaska waterways, nearly two dozen fisherman from Western Alaska return to a Bethel courtroom Monday, still caught up in a legal net that entangled them last summer.

The Alaska Native fisherman say they had a religious right to be on the water with their nets, and a judge must now decide whether they can use that argument as a defense at trial. This new posture has been backed by passionate supporters and become increasingly politicized as Alaska Natives continue to define their relationship with the state of Alaska.

In summer 2012, the fishermen defied river closures enacted by state officials to conserve a poor run of Chinook, or king salmon on the Kuskokwim River...

When it comes to defrauding Medicaid, Alaskans have shown they have no shortage of schemes by which to scam the system. Some fraudsters net merely a pittance for their effort – maybe only a few extra dollars here or there. Others line their pockets with hundreds or thousands of dollars in unauthorized income. Regardless the amount of ill-gotten gains, state investigators say they're ready to nab any of the crooks they can find, big or small.

"My investigators are hearing it's already started to have an impact," said Andrew Peterson, the assistant attorney general who's leading the charge. "It has a direct impact on the number of people that are willing to commit that kind of activity."...

Thanks to data released Wednesday by the White House, medical patients can now get a glimpse at the costs hospitals in their hometowns charge for various procedures . In Alaska, as in many locales, the fees vary wildly, with some diagnoses and treatment twice as expensive at one facility over another.

The vastly diverse numbers are “indefensible,” said Bruce Lamoureux of Providence Health and Services in Alaska. “What you are seeing in these numbers is years and years of unusual actions by hospitals, health systems and physicians in order to secure reimbursement.”...