California teamed with Sacramento County officials Thursday to launch a first-in-the-state multi-agency task force to investigate fraud in In-Home Supportive Services.
The program could benefit from the state budget approved last July that included $10 million to bolster anti-fraud efforts in the rapidly growing in-home care program.
The task force model brings together county, state and U.S. Social Security Administration and other federal investigators. The effort includes more cross-checking of databases to detect fraud.
Norman Williams, a spokesman for the California Department of Health Care Services, said talks are under way about forming other task forces in Los Angeles, Fresno, San Diego and Riverside counties.
Two state in-home care investigators have now been assigned full time to Sacramento County, which could get $1.7 million in anti-fraud funding. Nineteen other investigators work statewide, many in Los Angeles, Williams said.
Another $26 million from federal and county money is earmarked to deter fraud with new background checks and orientation sessions that warn of the consequences of fraud.
Flanked by team members in black shirts reading "IHSS Fraud Task Force," District Attorney Jan Scully also announced the arrest Wednesday of 12 people in Sacramento County who are accused of defrauding the program or other social services.
The 12 are accused of bilking government systems out of more than $352,400.
"This arrest sweep that we had yesterday," Scully said, "was what I refer to as an early warning shot over the bow, so to speak, that our task force is up and running and aggressively looking for fraud."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in particular, has suggested the program is riddled with fraud, although the administration has been unable to provide a reliable estimate.
Scully said that she has no estimate for how much fraud exists but that her office has discovered "red flags" pointing toward schemes.
Federal dollars pay for half the in-home care program, which serves about 400,000, with the state, counties and care recipients paying the rest.
The program's intent is to allow low-income seniors and disabled people to remain at home with the help of caregivers rather than placing them in nursing homes, which can cost five times more in public money.
"Detecting fraud earlier," said Susan Peters, chairwoman of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, "and cutting funds off sooner to perpetrators of fraud ensure that program funds go to people truly in need, not to people trying to rip off the system."
Scully said those arrested Wednesday allegedly stole a total of $138,907 in in-home care money, and one man bilked Social Security for about $70,000.
A family is accused of bilking the in-home care program by pretending a daughter was mentally disabled, while also collecting $128,608 in child-care subsidies.
IN THE KNOW
The Sacramento County In-Home Support Services Task Force has established a toll-free number and e-mail address to report suspected fraud.
• The number is (866) 410-4040
• The e-mail address is ihssfraud@sacda.org
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Call Susan Ferriss, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1267.
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