Fraud and abuse is alive and kicking in Los Angeles County. The District Attorney’s Office has filed charges against more than 20 people who defrauded an in-home care agency of $2 million.
According to the Los Angeles Times (July 25, 2008), “Charges have been filed against 21 people accused of defrauding more than $2 million in benefits from a state-funded program designed to help the disabled and the elderly receive in-home care, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. announced.”
“In one case, a man from Granada Hills claimed he was schizophrenic and…needed constant care, prosecutors said. The government paid his wife through the program to take care of him, giving her [an astronomical] $257,000 in [fraudulent] welfare benefits.” What’s worse is that prosecutors said her husband was rarely home because he was working as a roofer named ‘Gino.’
“In another case, a woman…[from] Maywood used two different identities so that her husband …could get paid to care for two women in their home….A growing number of fake identities are being used to scam the $1.6-billion program, called In-Home Supportive Services, which is administered by the county,.” according to the Times.
These criminal acts are reprehensible, but even more shocking is the fact that these terrible injustices were perpetrated over many years. Apparently, the program has highly ineffective audit practices. In fact, the IHSS agency appeared unaware that during the decade these recipients received benefits, they spent much of their time and money at casinos, prosecutors said.
There are even cases where one person is both the provider and the recipient of IHSS care. In addition, wanted criminals are getting funds from the program — “[t]he investigation identified one phony provider who was wanted on an arrest warrant for homicide and a second who had a prior conviction for robbery.”
This tragic exploitation of a program designed to provide necessary services to the disabled and elderly is a sobering reminder that government at all levels is subject to fraud and abuse. With California in the midst of trying to close a $15.2 billion state budget gap, of which spending on health and human services has never been higher, administrators of these programs should be on high alert for schemes bilking the system.
It is the duty of Los Angeles County officials and state lawmakers to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent responsibility for their intended purposes. Law enforcement officials should send a strong message by prosecuting these callous individuals for criminal misuse of the taxpayer dollars, and county officials and legislators should put mechanisms in place to discourage this activity in the future.
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