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Utah has a new watchdog over Medicaid, a post that was controversial in its creation and which continues to draw heat.

Lee Wyckoff was appointed the state's first Medicaid inspector general last month following a three-month national search. His background is in the private health insurance industry, where he built a career rooting out fraud, waste and abuse. Most recently, he spent two years as regional vice president of internal audit for one of the nation's largest insurers, Wellpoint's Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in Denver, Colo.

Why Wyckoff left the $64 billion company when he did — within weeks of a large data breach — is the source of speculation in an anonymous complaint emailed this week to the Governor's Office as well as several lawmakers and members of the media.

Wyckoff declined to be interviewed Thursday.

But Republican leaders place little stock in the complaint, which they suggest says more about the nature of Wyckoff's new office than Wyckoff.

"It's cowardice to make anonymous accusations," said Rep. Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara. "It's possible this comes from someone who may be under scrutiny or fears being under scrutiny by the OIG."

Clark sponsored legislation creating the Office of the Inspector General after a string of audits identified up to $30 million a year that could be saved through closer scrutiny of Medicaid claims. The bill was fought by the hospital lobby and conservatives who oppose increasing government regulation.

Clark is unapologetic.

"We have the right position. Time will tell whether we have the right individual," he said. "I'm just glad to have someone in there hunting for waste and abuse of taxpayer money."

Medicaid is a state-federal program that provides health insurance to about 230,000 low-income Utahns.

Wyckoff took the OIG post Aug. 8 and is being paid $104,582 to oversee 19 investigators and support staff. He reports to Ron Bigelow, director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget.

He underwent a thorough background check, said Ally Isom, spokeswoman for Utah Gov. Gary Herbert. "The status and conditions of his former employer were part of his job interview, and his responses were satisfactory."

On June 29, Wellpoint publicly apologized for a data breach that left exposed for five months the personal information of about 500,000 of its health insurance applicants.

Wellpoint officials have denied any negligence, blaming the breach on a revamp of the corporate website by a third-party vendor that failed to secure sections of the site to ensure visitors couldn't access members' medical records and Social Security numbers. It wasn't until attorneys filed a class action lawsuit that Wellpoint became aware of the breach, according to court documents.

Nevertheless, Wellpoint settled and agreed to pay for credit monitoring and identity theft insurance. Individual reimbursement for those harmed is capped at $50,000.

At Wellpoint, Wyckoff's job entailed "reducing business risk" and recovering money for overcharges and fraudulent claims, according to his resume. Wellpoint officials did not immediately respond to questions about whether Wyckoff was responsible for information security.

kstewart@sltrib.com@kirstendstewart —

Policing Medicaid

Lee Wyckoff, Utah's new Medicaid inspector general, is charged with stopping waste and abuse of the low-income health insurance program. Here are his credentials:

Prior to his two years as regional vice president of internal audit at Wellpoint Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, he was the company's internal audit director. In this capacity he advised risk managers on ethics and data privacy.

Between 2005 and 2006 he was a senior IT audit consultant for Genworth Financial Inc., a $9 billion insurance carrier in the long-term care, mortgage, retirement and wealth management business. He cut his teeth at the large auditing firm KPMG.

He got an accounting degree from Towson University in Baltimore and graduated magna cum laude from Johns Hopkins University with a master of science in engineering and IT.

He enjoys snow skiing, wakeboarding and motorcycles, and lived most recently in Vail, Colo.