{"id":128676,"date":"2026-02-10T12:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T12:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/128676\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T12:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T12:02:12","slug":"new-york-medicaid-transport-plagued-by-fraud-with-drivers-scamming-up-to-196m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/128676\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Medicaid transport\u00a0 plagued by fraud, with drivers scamming up to $196M"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York drivers are accused of bilking up to $196 million from a badly managed Medicaid transportation\u00a0program.<\/a><\/p>\n

A federal audit by the Department of Health and Human Services found the shocking amount had been paid to transport companies enrolled in the Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) program, but rides \u201cdid not meet or may not have met Medicaid requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2022 report <\/a>claimed almost half of $445 million in taxpayer money paid out in 2018 and 2019 in New York City was mismanaged. This included rides that were not properly documented, drivers who were not properly licensed, rides that weren\u2019t pre-authorized by a medical practitioner and services which were billed but never happened, according to the report. \u00a0<\/p>\n

After a federal audit blasted New York\u2019s Medicaid spending for Non Emergency Medical Transportation, Hochul renewed a statewide contract with the brokage at the center of it. The owner is a big Hochul donor, and even held a fundraiser for Hochul just two months before she renewed his contract. Darren McGee\/ Office of Governor Kathy Hochul<\/p>\n

The former headquarters of Purple Heart Transportation, which allegedly defrauded as much as $29 million from Medicaid, according to documents from 2019. Google Maps<\/p>\n

The federal government demanded New York State immediately pay back $84 million of the money and put a further $112 million under review.<\/p>\n

In one shocking example, the owner and two employees of Queens-based Purple Heart Transportation were indicted by the state Attorney General for allegedly stealing $19 million, in a scheme that involved paying weekly cash kickbacks to patients who lent their IDs to use for Medicaid billing.<\/p>\n

Purple Heart claimed to rack up 1,000 miles\u00a0a day on New York\u2019s crowded streets. They then allegedly funneled the proceeds overseas through shell companies, according to the AG. In October 2019, the three were arrested after returning to the US from their native Guyana. Ringleader Sean Ally, an illegal immigrant, and one accomplice pleaded guilty and were sent to prison, according to a lawyer involved in the case.<\/p>\n

Despite the alarming audit, which included 322 transportation providers in New York City, Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a> rewarded the company in control of doling out the funds, Medical Answering Services (MAS), by expanding its approximately $1 billion contract in 2023.<\/p>\n

HHS said state officials should work with MAS to \u201crefund to the federal government any unallowable amounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

MAS boss Russ Maxwell controls all the state contracts for Non Emergency Medical Transportation, paid by Medicaid, but the program has been mired in fraud and allegations of abuse. Maxwell and his husband donated over $300,000 to Govs. Cuomo and Hochul. NY 1<\/p>\n

It is unclear if the state ever complied. Officials did not respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedicaid is generally vulnerable to fraud because its patients don\u2019t usually pay copays, and so may not notice or report improper billing claims,\u201d Chris Pope, a Medicaid expert and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told The Post. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNon-emergency transportation is particularly prone to fraud, because it allows people who aren\u2019t licensed medical professionals to claim funds from the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

MAS headquarters in Syracuse. The company oversees more than a billion dollars in Medicaid money, according to sources, and was blasted in a 2022 federal audit, claiming $196 million may have been inappropriately reimbursed. Google Maps<\/p>\n

Non Emergency Medical Transportation helps seriously ill and disabled people get to appointments, usually through private vehicle contractors. It is funded by Medicare. 24K-Production \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The state disputed the HHS report, admitting to only a small number of inconsistencies. It claimed most of the suspicious rides actually did meet requirements, or were due to bookkeeping growing pains as MAS expanded its territory.<\/p>\n

The problems have since continued, The Post can reveal. In the last year, the New York Attorney General\u2019s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has reached agreements to reclaim $13 million allegedly stolen by NEMT contractors.<\/p>\n

According to the settlement<\/a> from the AG\u2019s office, one Bronx-based company called American Base No. 1 will repay $4.75 million to resolve allegations it grossly inflated milage, among other alleged scams, including one driver who claimed 96 unique trips amounting to driving 2,158 miles in just a single day.<\/p>\n

Another Bronx company, NBT Transportation, will pay back $1.5 million to resolve allegations it submitted claims for fake toll expenses from Medicaid, according to the AG.<\/p>\n

Maxwell\u2019s firefighter husband, Morgan McDole, donated half his salary to Andrew Cuomo\u2019s gubernatorial campaign, claiming it was a gesture of gratitude for passing gay marriage. His husband landed over $400M in state contracts. Facebook<\/p>\n

Seaman Radio Dispatchers of Manhattan was sued for $1.2 million for allegedly collecting Medicaid transportation payments for dead people while the company\u2019s taxi license was suspended. The defendants have denied civil charges against them, and the case is ongoing,\u00a0court records show.<\/p>\n

Other companies mentioned in the lawsuits and settlements used false addresses to claim payments, hired unlicensed or banned drivers \u2014 some of whom had previously been convicted of Medicaid fraud \u2014 and operated kickback schemes with passengers.<\/p>\n

A Western New York State Senator told The Post of one harrowing fraud in his district involving a drug addict using NEMT to attend methadone treatments. The driver concocted a kickback scheme with the patient, splitting the fare if the patient promised to request the same driver.<\/p>\n

Medicaid costs have soared and fraud exploded since Cuomo began reforms in 2011; New York went from spending $50 billion a year to $115 billion, and climbing. Darren McGee- Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo<\/p>\n

Medicaid spending in New York is notoriously secretive and Hochul has dodged recent bipartisan calls for an independent audit of the astronomically spend-happy program. Mike Groll\/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul<\/p>\n

The Senator\u2019s office said instead of going to treatment the driver began taking the patient to \u201cdrug dealing areas.\u201d The patient has since died.<\/p>\n

The AG\u2019s office also said they sent cease-and-desist letters to another 54 transportation companies suspected of fraud and abuse in January 2025.<\/p>\n

MAS has sole control over the state\u2019s ballooning Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) program. A 2019 Cuomo-era report showed NEMT costs had skyrocketed 131% since 2011, but state lawmakers who spoke to The Post had no idea how much the program costs today \u2014 saying the governor\u2019s office has not made that information available to them.<\/p>\n

In 2025, the AG\u2019s office recouped $4.75 million from Bronx-based American Base No. 1 which it alleged was running a Medicaid transportation fraud scheme. Google Maps<\/p>\n

In a 2025 letter to Gov. Hochul urging she return NEMT to county-level control, Republican New York State Senator George Borrello wrote, \u201cMedicaid transportation used to be a local responsibility, run cost-effectively by counties that understood their communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s a billion-dollar boondoggle run by unaccountable brokers who answer to no one, while fraud is exploding and taxpayers are getting ripped off.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2011, Cuomo had taken NEMT away from county-level management and awarded contracts to regional brokers, giving over $400 million in contacts to Maxwell.<\/p>\n

New York spends more per person on Medicaid than any other state and second most in the country, despite being the fourth most populous. <\/p>\n

Less than one month after the AG\u2019s office announced the $13 million in lawsuits against MAS contractors in June 2025, McDole donated $16,000 to Hochul and Maxwell donated $26,000 to the Hochul-controlled New York State Democratic Committee, campaign finance documents reviewed by The Post reveal. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

By 2017, Maxwell\u2019s MAS brokerage had control of all the state\u2019s regional contracts, including New York City.<\/p>\n

MAS owner Rus Maxwell, and his husband, have donated over $300,000 to ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo and his successor, Hochul, even hosting a fundraiser for Hochul just two months before she renewed his company\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n

Maxwell did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.<\/p>\n

Seaman Radio Dispatchers, of Manhattan, was sued for $1.2 million for collecting Medicaid transportation payments for dead people while the company\u2019s taxi license was suspended, according to AG documents. Google Maps<\/p>\n

Maxwell\u2019s husband, Syracuse firefighter Morgan McDole, donated\u00a0half of his yearly salary<\/a>, $37,500, to Cuomo\u2019s campaign claiming at the time that it was an expression of gratitude for the governor\u2019s gay marriage support.<\/p>\n

In 2022, husband McDole donated an additional $52,000 to Hochul\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

Less than one month after the AG\u2019s office announced the $13 million in lawsuits against MAS contractors in June 2025, McDole donated $16,000 to Hochul and Maxwell donated $26,000 to the Hochul-controlled New York State Democratic Committee, campaign finance documents reviewed by The Post reveal.<\/p>\n

Bronx-based Agape paid $2.45 million to resolve allegations that the company falsely increased the mileage of its trips that it submitted for reimbursement to Medicaid, according to the AG\u2019s office. Google Maps<\/p>\n

Together, the two donated\u00a0$236,000 to Cuomo<\/a>\u00a0and over $100,000 to Hochul.<\/p>\n

The New York Department of Health (DOH) declined to answer questions from The Post about the 2022 audit or if the state has since implemented reforms.<\/p>\n

Unlike other states such as Florida, Texas and Minnesota, New York is notoriously tightlipped about its $115 billion annual Medicaid spend, by not providing details about where taxpayer money ends up, as\u00a0we recently reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Post recently uncovered how the state lost $1.2 billion of taxpayer money to\u00a0scammers and middlemen<\/a>\u00a0through the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) and how it spends up to $400 million a year on\u00a0Social Adult Day Care centers<\/a>, which mostly duplicate the offerings of senior centers.<\/p>\n

Both of these programs, like NEMT, were Cuomo-era Medicaid overhauls that have been continued by Hochul. Prior to these changes \u2014 which were sold to taxpayers as cost-saving and fraud-reducing \u2014 the state spent about $50 billion a year on Medicaid.<\/p>\n

Gov. Hochul has ignored recent bipartisan calls for an independent audit of the state\u2019s Medicaid behemoth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York drivers are accused of bilking up to $196 million from a badly managed Medicaid transportation\u00a0program. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[80,396,5237,426,7050,57,9,11,10,608,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-128676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-andrew-cuomo","9":"tag-fraud","10":"tag-health-department","11":"tag-kathy-hochul","12":"tag-medicaid","13":"tag-metro","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-news","17":"tag-transportation","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}