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NO! See here>>>AUSTIN - Forty convicted felons who applied to be Medi- caid providers for the poor since Dec. 1 were denied because of new background checks to combat fraud, a leading state investigator said Wednesday.

Brian Flood, the inspector general at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said the felons were among 1,500 applicants screened.

He also told members of the Texas Senate Finance Committee that in fiscal year 2005, his office's investigations recovered more than $440 million in total health and human services fraud and abuse.

Of that, just more than $21 million was fraud by Medicaid recipients; another $46.8 million was fraud by Medicaid providers, including doctors, nurses, counselors or billing companies.