In the latest edition of the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine, I profiled Aneesh Chopra, Virginia’s new Secretary of Technology. With the Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA) and Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) functioning as a quasi-independent entities, the SecTech has the lightest administrative responsibilities of anyone in the governor’s cabinet. Chopra is using the freedom from day-to-day drudgery to, among other things, advance Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s goal of streamlining the state’s Medicaid program.

In our interview, Chopra discussed upgrading state Medicaid information systems. By sharing data with Virginia’s major health care systems, he hopes to provide better care for patients, reduce the number of redundant tests and procedures and achieve other efficiencies. Read the details here.

Phil Rodokanakis, president of the Virginia Club for Growth and a Bacon’s Rebellion columnist, suggests that Chopra may be overlooking the biggest cost savings of all: the opportunity to eliminate good, old-fashioned waste, fraud and abuse. Says Phil:

The Medicaid system is fraught with waste, fraud and abuse—both at the federal and state levels. Designing and implementing data mining projects that can readily locate false claims in the system should be like shooting fish in a barrel, for a tech savvy person.

Waste, fraud and abuse is the low-hanging fruit in Medicaid expenditures, Rodokanakis suggests, and that is where Chopra should first focus his attention.