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ID system proposed for Medicaid

NYS Senator Mark Grisanti
WBFO News file photo
NYS Senator Mark Grisanti

Some state officials are hoping the surge of Medicaid costs can be eased by cutting fraud within the system.

They're carefully following new procedures employed locally by Health Transaction Network which is using a computer fingerprint identification system.

State Senator Mark Grisanti, for one, thinks Medicaid can use the system statewide.

Critics have raised privacy concerns, but Grisanti castes those aside
        
"All this card does is break your fingerprints down to a zeroes and ones," Grisanti said.

The machines reading the information are not "connected to a warrant office." 

Grisanti says there's going to be a real push in the weeks left before the end of the Legislature session to mandate the State Health Department use the system.

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.