The county hopes that fraud investigations, like the ongoing analysis of prescription data, will result in some recipients being placed in less expensive Medicaid programs that limit their treatment to a single doctor and a single pharmacy.

Nassau County has been using statistical analysis and data mining tools from Chicago-based SPSS Inc. for three years, said Peter Clement, assistant commissioner of the county.

The county first used the tools to examine claims filed by transportation companies for the cost of bringing recipients to doctor's appointments. The result: The county identified $50,000 worth of transportation billings for 2003 that had no matching treatment claims, Clement said.

He noted that the 40 companies providing transportation today "all know we are monitoring it now and [are] looking at [claims] through these different tools." From 2004 to 2005, he said, the county's Medicaid transportation bill decreased from $10 million to $9 million. "We can't prove it, but we obviously attribute [the decrease] to the tools," Clement said.

Acquario said that BI tools are helping county officials throughout the state prove what they have long suspected -- that fraud and misuse are contributing to the substantial growth of Medicaid claims. "Anecdotes are no longer going to be the norm," he said. "Now, through statistical-driven reporting . . . we're able to back up what we had suspected in ways we were not able to do in years past."