The primary care physician leading the "personhood" ballot measure campaign in Montana is under multiple investigations for Medicaid fraud.
In a one-sided news story [14] published in the Daily Inter Lake, Dr. Ann Bukacek confirmed that state and federal investigators launched the probe after allegations were raised about the Kalispell, Mont., doctor's billing practices and related complaints that she submitted Medicaid reimbursements for time spent praying with patients.
Bukacek told the newspaper that fraud investigators asked "How much time we spend on it, how we decide how to pray, how we pray with non-Christians."
She blames a disgruntled former employee for the most recent investigation which marks a string of four earlier inquiries that began in April over other unspecified complaints about billing issues. State and federal authorities declined to comment or even verify the existence of the probes.
Bukacek is no stranger to controversy — the seriousness of the current charges aside.
She is president of the Montana ProLife Coalition which is again fronting the state's "personhood" amendment to codify constitutional rights for fertilized eggs. Their first attempt in 2008 failed to qualify enough petition signatures to make the ballot. The group has also agitated for conservatively-allied state lawmakers to sponsor "personhood" amendments and repeal privacy clauses related to abortion care. Though the measures passed the state Senate they were ultimately defeated in the House.
Bukacek also claims to be on the steering committee of the anti-health reform astroturf group, Coalition to Protect Patient Rights [15], that is managed by the Washington, D.C., lobbyist firm the DCI Group, best known for its pro-tobacco smokers' rights campaigns.
Though her leadership in CPPR could not be confirmed by independent sources, Bukacek's husband Roland Horst appeared in a video [16]for the fake grassroots organization. Horst was billed as a "medical billing specialist and massage therapist."
Bukacek's well-established conservative religious beliefs and opposition to federal health care reform, which she derides as "Obamacare," are regularly splashed in newspaper guest editorials and a seemingly endless stream of letters to the editor.
Planted in the Nov. 8 Daily Inter Lake story are unsubstantiated allegations by unnamed anti-choice advocates that Bukacek is being targeted because she is an outspoken advocate for right wing political views.
However, a less sinister reason may come from another Daily Inter Lake sop story [17] printed March 2 that notes a previous professional dispute over her inappropriate conduct with patients:
Bukacek spent five years at Kalispell Diagnostic Service but was told she'd have to stop praying with patients or leave the physician group. She wouldn't compromise her faith, so she broke away and began her own practice.
From a practical standpoint, many cash-strapped states are redoubling their efforts to sniff out Medicaid fraud. Unlike Medicare, the federal health care entitlement program that covers people over the age of 65 and those with certain disabilities, Medicaid is a joint state-federal funded program for low-income people.
The Montana Medicaid fraud unit has recovered $7.8 million [18] since 1993 from convictions for improper billing, false claims and illegal kickbacks paid to physicians by medical device and pharmaceutical companies.
If Bukacek is charged and eventually convicted of Medicaid fraud, she could face up to 10 years in state prison and a fine not to exceed $50,000 [19].
Ironically, an amendment to the Senate health care reform bill [20] under debate this week aims to strengthen Medicaid and Medicare fraud enforcement. The very bill Bukacek dismisses as unnecessary government interference.