During just three months, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office helped save taxpayers $1.3 million in improper Social Security claims. The work, in cooperation with federal officials, occurred during the second quarter of this year.

That amount adds to the millions of dollars in other improper Social Security claims Morrisey’s investigators have helped detect.

So, why won’t state legislators turn Morrisey’s office loose on Medicaid fraud?

He has been asking lawmakers to do that for many months. It would require only transferring the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit from the Department of Health and Human Resources to the attorney general.

It has been pointed out that the DHHR does not have a particularly good record in finding and cracking down on fraud. West Virginia’s recovery rate is below the national average.

There is plenty of room for crooked operators to rip off taxpayers through Medicaid. Here in West Virginia, Medicaid pays health care bills for about 510,000 people, at a cost of nearly $3 billion a year.

Morrisey thinks his office can recover millions of dollars a year more than the DHHR. His investigators’ record shows that may not be an idle boast.

It is puzzling that legislators, scrimping for every dollar they can find to balance the state budget, are not taking Morrisey up on his money-saving offer.