State Met With Lakewood Jewish Group Before Offering Medicaid Fraud Amnesty
Image by Google Maps
By Josh Nathan-Kazis September 26, 2017
New Jersey officials met exclusively with representatives of the Lakewood Vaad, an Orthodox Jewish group, while planning a controversial Medicaid fraud amnesty program, the Asbury Park Press reported last week.
The amnesty program, offered only in Ocean County, New Jersey, allowed Medicaid fraudsters to repay illicit benefits without facing prosecution. The program came after officials arrested more than a dozen members of Lakewood’s Orthodox community on Medicaid fraud charges this spring. Critics of the amnesty program charged that it favored the Orthodox community.
The Asbury Park Press’s report found that New Jersey officials met only with Vaad representatives while planning the amnesty offer. Leaders of local Hispanic and African-American groups said they were taken by surprise when the program was announced.
“Nothing to us at all. No one reached out,” Alejandra Morales, president of a local immigrant right’s group, told the Asbury Park Press.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at nathankazis@forward.com or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
