The director of the attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has been tapped to serve as Arkansas' first Medicaid inspector general.
Gov. Mike Beebe on Thursday named Deputy Attorney General Jay Shue to the inspector general position.
Lawmakers created the position this year to oversee an independent office aimed at preventing waste, fraud and abuse in the $5 billion program.
Shue has directed the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at the attorney general's office since 2007.
Before that, he spent 10 years as a deputy prosecutor for the Sixth Judicial District.
The inspector general's office will be created July 1 under the new law. Beebe's office said Shue will spend the coming weeks to establish a staff and physical office.