James G. Sheehan was nominated by Governor Eliot Spitzer to serve as New York State Medicaid Inspector General on April 6, 2007, and confirmed by the New York State Senate. Over the past three years, he has led the 600 auditors, investigators, and medical and legal professionals of the independent Office of Medicaid Inspector General-an Office recognized as a national innovator and model for health care program integrity.
New York manages the largest Medicaid program in the nation, over $50 billion per year, and provides health care for 4.5 million enrollees.
Beginning in 1980, Mr. Sheehan was an Assistant U.S. Attorney from Philadelphia and had served as a supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1983. He graduated from Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School.
Mr. Sheehan has focused on health care fraud since 1987, having personally handled or directly supervised over 500 health care fraud matters, including qui tam (whistleblower) cases against several hundred defendants. From 1999 to 2006, he led the Federal Government’s investigation and case against Medco Health Solutions, which resulted in recovery of over $155 million, as well as substantial business changes to protect patients and pharmacists.
