It's a very expensive problem: men and women wrongfully take advantage of the Medicaid system designed to provide medical, dental and long-term care to low income Washington residents. Now the state has a new weapon. Yesterday the Senate approved the creation of a Medicaid Fraud Hotline in hopes of catching those who cost the state millions of dollars every year.

Sen Conway: “We’ve seen hotlines really work very well in other departments and be efficient in recovering lost funds.”

Bill sponsor Senator Steve Conway says Washington has lagged behind other states in recovering money fraudulently taken from the Medicaid system, totals that can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. He says the hotline will be given a two year trial period to see if it can reverse that trend.