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Thursday, August 13, 2026 ~ Volume 71 ~ Issue Number 37 ~ $1.00
Officials Look to Combat Medicaid Fraud By Matt Meduri Senator Dean Murray (R-East Patchogue) has three specialties in his capacity as a New York State Senator: advocating for crime victims, railing against the MTA, and regularly discussing his grievances with New York’s Medicaid system. Murray told The Messenger last month in our “good, bad, ugly” review of this year’s State Budget that New York offers the “Cadillac” of Medicaid services that allows for virtually any services - medically necessary or not - to be covered under Medicaid, that out-of-state patients are treated, and that the State’s error rate is substantially higher than the federal government’s benchmark. Murray was joined by Senators Mario Mattera (R-St. James), Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk), Assemblyman Joe DeStefano (R-Medford), Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney (R), and Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) in Hauppauge last Thursday to unveil a pair of bills he’ll be pitching in Albany next session. The first bill would “formally designate the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) as the official clearinghouse for Medicaid fraud tips at 1-877-87-FRAUD and establish, in statute, a standardized process for how those tips are received, evaluated, and investigated,” according to Senator Murray’s office. Continued on page 5
Senator Murray (R-East Patchogue) is the main sponsor of two bills to rein in Medicaid fraud. (Credit - Matt Meduri)
After 58 Years
Vietnam Vet Earns Purple Heart By Matt Meduri Sometimes, accolades aren’t withheld. They’re just late. Daniel Knote, of Riverhead, was awarded the Purple Heart on Friday, 58 years after he took a bullet in Vietnam. Knote, now 79, served in the Army from June 1967 to June 1973. On February 27, 1968, he was shot in the right thigh while helping a wounded fellow soldier. Just 21 at the time, Knote should have received one of the nation’s highest military honors. But due to a paperwork mishap, that valor was never correctly placed. The error was formally corrected on Friday morning at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post #6249 in Rocky Point. The Purple Heart has been awarded since 1932 to military personnel wounded or killed in combat. While not the highest military honor in the U.S., the Purple Heart is the oldest. Its predecessor was the Badge of Military Merit, from which the purple hue is derived, which began issuance in 1782. Continued on page 10
FULL STORIES ON:
Manorville Group Celebrates 40 Years Page 3
Dem Candidate Quits Clerk’s Race Page 4
Assembly Speaker Visits Coram Page 12
Vietnam Veteran Dan Knote received a long overdue Purple Heart in Rocky Point (Credit - Matt Meduri)