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Center for Public Integrity
Like a growing number of disabled Americans on Medicaid, Keith Foreman, a 57-year-old in Metropolis, Ill., qualified for a personal caregiver to help him with daily activities like dressing, shaving, and preparing meals.
Foreman, who prosecutors say suffers from a spinal injury, hired his girlfriend, Sheila McDonald, for the job. In 2011, McDonald received almost $5,000 from Medicaid for six months of care she provided to Foreman.
These personal care services, which are available in all 50 states, are designed to help the sick, elderly, and disabled remain in their homes — and out of expensive nursing facilities.
But Foreman was not living at home. During the days marked on McDonald’s timesheets, Foreman was housed in the Massac County jail in Illinois, serving time for forging a stolen debit card signature at a local liquor store.
Like Foreman and McDonald, who both pleaded guilty to charges of making false statements, unscrupulous beneficiaries and home health workers are increasingly targeting personal care services programs for illegal money-making schemes, according to a new federal report. Investigators say lax requirements for both caregivers and patients, along with poor state and federal oversight, has made the rapidly growing programs a lucrative target for fraud. And this isn’t the first time they’ve issued such a warning.
Report faults federal oversight of state programs
A Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report scheduled to be released Thursday faults the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) for inadequate oversight of personal care services programs, whose costs are shared by states and the federal government, as is the norm for Medicaid. The report, which brings together six years of OIG investigations and 23 reports on the topic, describes a program hindered by poor claims documentation, insufficient monitoring of claims data for fraud and waste, and a crazy-quilt of varied requirements for personal care workers in different states.
“Historically, CMS has left a lot of the responsibility for overseeing waste, fraud and abuse to the states,” said Christi Grimm, special assistant to the principal deputy inspector general. “As a result, we have 301 different sets of requirements for caregivers across the states.”
Although some states mandate criminal background checks and licensing for home health workers, Grimm said others lack even the most basic requirements, including age minimums,
which has led to cases in which juveniles escape prosecution for fraud and abuse. Worker requirements are set by counties in a number of states, she added, which has led to a hodge-podge of rules that are difficult to enforce, and nearly impossible to monitor.
“We are asking CMS to step up to the plate,” Grimm said, and use its authority to regulate and monitor the state programs.
The report includes six previous OIG recommendations to CMS and state agencies which have gone unimplemented. In a 2008 report that found five states may have paid up to $11 million in error for personal care services during one quarter of 2005, OIG recommended that the CMS work with states to stop payments for personal care when patients were receiving care in institutions, not at home. The agency agreed with the recommendation, but according to the OIG, the work has not been completed.
In addition to asking the agency to address previous recommendations, the report offers four new goals for CMS to improve oversight and monitoring of state plans, including standardizing rules for personal care workers to set minimum age and education levels, and require criminal background checks.
The report, however, seems unlikely to spur the agency to follow the OIG’s specific suggestions.. In a written response, CMS — part of the Department of Health and Human Services — explicitly concurred with only one of the OIG recommendations: that it should provide states with claims data to help root out cases in which beneficiaries are simultaneously receiving both institutional care and home health services. In response to the recommendation on establishing federal guidelines for personal care workers, CMS pointed out there is a shortage of care attendants.
“Personal care services are an important part of keeping people in their homes and out of nursing homes, which lowers costs and improves the quality of life of the patient,” said CMS spokesman Brian Cook. “We are working to protect personal care from fraud and abuse by promoting stronger training programs for workers who provide personal care, working with states on background check programs for these workers, and developing new data methods to analyze claims for potential fraud and abuse."
Grimm called the CMS response to the report unacceptable. “It’s not uncommon for CMS … to identify things on the horizon, or things they hope to do, but not necessarily commit to doing something,” Grimm said, adding that CMS’s efforts so far simply have not worked. “[CMS] has the authority to do what we are asking. It has not done it yet. And it hasn’t committed to doing it after reading our report.”
A wealth of opportunities
According to investigators, most fraud schemes in personal care services involve billing for care that was not provided or was not allowed. Self-directed programs, which allow beneficiaries to hire and manage their helpers, may be particularly vulnerable, but some prosecutions have also involved home health care agencies.
In January, for example, the owner of a Minnesota home health care company outside Minneapolis was sentenced to two years in prison for cheating Medicaid out of more than $650,000 in charges for personal care services. In March, the owner of Families First Home Health Care in Sparta, N.C., pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering stemming from a scheme in which she billed Medicaid for personal care services she did not perform and split the proceeds with plan members.
“Fraud goes where the money is,” said Barbara Zelner, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Units, which represents state law enforcement agencies that investigate Medicaid fraud. After nursing homes, Zelner said, home health represents one of the larger slices of state Medicaid budgets.
Personal care services programs have grown quickly since a 1999 Supreme Court decision held that unjustified segregation of the disabled is a civil rights violation. The ruling led to increased spending for home health services; in 2011, Medicaid paid more than $12 billion for personal care services, up 35 percent since 2005, according to the OIG. Investigators say program fraud has kept pace. In 2010, state Medicaid fraud units investigated more than 1,000 cases involving personal care services, more than any other type of Medicaid service.
Not everyone agrees with the OIG’s views on personal care services. In 2011, an OIG review of Medicaid claims for personal care services in New Jersey found that 40 percent should have been denied. Sherl Brand, president of the Home Care Association of New Jersey, which advocates for home health care providers, questions the OIG’s work, saying the agency often draw broad conclusions from examinations of a limited number of claims. “It is almost a bit ridiculous because of the extrapolation they do,” Brand said.
New Jersey home health workers face criminal background checks and certification and licensure requirements, Brand said. Personal care services programs save money, she said, in addition to helping disabled people live better lives. When New Jersey was faced with budget cuts, Brand said the association determined the average weekly cost for personal care services was $242 dollars a week, only slightly higher than the cost of a single day in a nursing home.
But as funding for the programs increase, fraud follows. Kirk Ogrosky, a former top federal health care fraud prosecutor who is now a partner at the Washington law firm Arnold & Porter, said home health has long been a hotbed of fraud, both in Medicaid and in Medicare. The fraud, he said, is not hard to uncover. Ogrosky recalled that after an extensive analysis of Medicare claims, he sent agents out to interview questionable beneficiaries. When the agents knocked on the doors, they often learned the person they were looking for was at work, Ogrosky recalled. “That’s utterly preposterous,” he said, “since home health requires that you are homebound.”
In other cases, Ogrosky said, agents found that home health care agencies were filing claims for beneficiaries who did not live at the homes indicated on the claims. “One of my favorite stories is about a homeless guy we found,” Ogrosky said. “He didn’t even have a home to be homebound to.”
The Center for Public Integrity is a non-profit independent investigative news outlet. For more of its stories visit publicintegrity.org.
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How about cleaning up your own house before you tell me I have to pay more taxes to support this crap. I don't mind paying taxes, but I can't afford to give my money to thieves. And maybe the Government should take the same viewpoint. Stop giving our money to thieves!
The Government per-fer to give Billions of free aid to other Countries and then raise the taxes...So really who are the crooks? Remember this, the Rich dont need anything, to tax the poor is theft!We have a very corrupted unfunctional Government!
As the article above proves the myth that we have this country full of "poor people" is what needs to be investigated. All these government programs don't help the disadvantaged, they create them. Medicaid, Medicare, welfare, they all have so much fraud and corruption and they are going left unchecked by officials who cry discrimination every time something is looked into! Meanwhile the rich and middle class are taxed unfairly. What is theft is collecting taxes to keep these agencies funded unchecked.
stuttgart yeah like romney and the extremists were going to win... get real you idiot...
bewildered the rich are taxed unfairly? HHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA... you are serious?? Really? Really?
That is not true, there are always going to be people who try to game the system. But I know a number of disabled people who have benefited enormously because of this particular program.
Bewidered2024,I agree with you but Medicare is for senior citizens,which every tax payer pays into along with their employers.That is also rift with fraud.Obama moved the Medicare funds into the ACA which I consider theft of taxpayers money.
Dear "just a cleaning lady": You are spouting about something that you are sorely misinformed about. Obama did NOT move any MEDICARE FUNDS to Affordable Care; he cut the amount the 'providers' of care could bill for, i.e., hospitals, physicians, medical specialists,etc.. There were NO $$$$ funds transferred anywhere. You need to get your facts straight, as this is the kind of misinformation that snowballs into an outright lie. Do us all a favor,before spreading something you don't know about or understand, do some research first; and I don't mean listening to hearsay.
Straight to the point.. what he did was even worse.. He is taking away care for the elderly while telling America he isnt.. He is lying. There is so much in his ACA that is going to screw alot of people... Have you read it all yet? I live it, I work with it, there are going to be massive job losses and companies dropping your healthcare.. You will be slaves to the govt.. you will have to go on their healthcare.. SLAVES.. That is what he wanted.. the more using govt. stuff the better hold he has on you.. SOCIALISM.
If the govt can't control it now, how are they going to it with so many more people on the program?
Romney was correct on everything but the loosers on the left still won.
Kinda makes you ask questions about how and why?
When the Administration is corrupt nothing good can happen.
This type of oversight does belong at the state level, but based one what I am understanding from this article, is that they don't want it and can't do it.
Immigrants can't vote until they become citizens. And how on earth did you manage to bring immigration into this. I went back and looked and did not see a single mention of immigrants. It is a fallacy that immigrants are jumping on welfare, non citizens do not qualify for most government programs.
TamL,They can if they have all of the phony required documents needed to register to vote.You can buy anything for identity purposes in East L.a.,California if you know where to go.
Lady, You are talking out of the side of your face. You talk as if you know something you know nothing about. You spread misinformation which you know a little about. I would have to wonder if you gossip on a regular basis and your habit is to say just enough to "appear" to know something; your kind are misinformed and damaging.
You got it.. They cant even control the taxes of the US, how are they now gonna add 33 milion more people to a system.. Obama has raped our country and will continue.. You dummies that voted for him are gonna pay alot..
TamL and straight to the point.. You two are living in a dream world.. There are plenty of illegals getting govt. help.. You better open your eyes.. You dont know what you are speaking about.. I work with them everyday.. Trust me they are getting alot of tax dollars they dont deserve.. and yes plenty have false ID's.. Grow up and open your eyes.
Then you are part of the problem, did you report them? How do you know they have false ids? Did you check them? Did they tell you they were illegal? You ran E-Verify on them? What did you do?
Like this? Wait until you see Obamacare. The government is simply not capable of running a program that isn't wide-open to abuse. Passive-aggressive civil servant bureaucrats assigned to blow through their budgets are running this farce, who, in 25 years, will be the complainers when their pensions have to get cut. The best part is how this news report is slanted to sound indignant, as if it's an expose. It's a true SNAFU. This isn't news; it's just a reminder.
Romney Lover, TexasR, fraud has been an ongoing problem with Medicaid for decades, long BEFORE, what YOU call Obamacare came into existence! Trying to lay blame on ONE, SINGLE individual for our ENTIRE government's failure to stop it is LUDICROUS in the extreme! People like you, who single out the President for all the ills of this nation are simply ignorant and haven't a clue as to what you are talking about.. I consider you to be a part of the problem, definitely NOT a part of the solution! If you MUST lay blame then lay it where it belongs, on the decades of governmental abuse by the Bush Dynasty!
Seabreezin'
Texas R was not blaming Obamacare for the ongoing fraud. He/she was just stating that it is going to get worse with Obamacare. If they haven't had the time or inclination to monitor for fraud in the past how are they going to monitor it when millions more people are in the system.
As for being part of they problem, you are just as much. For one thing there was not decades of governmental abuse by a so-called Bush Dynasty. Both parties are responsible for where this country is now, not just one. Quit being a sheep and open your eyes to the fact that neither party gives a dam* about you or me. All they care about is keeping the power and they will all lie to achieve that.
Romney ethical??? Really?? Really??? He was a corporate raider.... Especially taking over small business in small towns.. Legal of course but Moral??? No Way ... Alot of folks can thank him and his co for their long term unemployment food stamps etc...
Sure racism and emotion came into it.... Why do you think record numbers of africal americans voted... They werent going to allow the gop to disenfranchise them.. YEAH!!!!
If he had managed to seperate himself from the NUTS he might have won...
Stuttgart, you have a point with Obamacare being a large federal burden, but you missed the mark calling Romney intelligent and ethical.
mdt-2577584,Romney would have cut the fat at the government level.
Right!!!! This is a man that couldn't tell anything straight; he was caught lying in his campaign constantly. He is a financial vulture and those companies that Bain took over were dismantled and reassembled overseas; it is know as outsourcing. This man had no interest in you or anybody...you are just another face and someone to look down at. Even his wife, Anne, refers to the population (of which you and I belong) as "those people". Just another case of the wealthy looking down their noses at anyone that did not fit in their "league (income bracket)". Romney is so out of touch with the people that he could not even identify with any of the concerns at hand. He would have been an absolute disaster as we wouldn't know who we had for president one day to the next, as he flip-flops worse than a fish out of water. He didn't come clean on his taxes...because he took advantage of the amnesty that was offered in2009 so he could legally declare the money he had socked away overseas to avoid taxes. He knew he was going to go for the presidential bid so he just put his money in order in preparation. He is nothing but a smug and smirking crook.
This is definitely a problem area that needs addressing and until they can follow through and ensure that people are being held accountable, this is just a big hole Americans are throwing their tax dollars into without and end in sight.No wonder so many are fed up and believe practically everyone is cheating when we hear stories like this.
We know there are many who need the program, but how do we separate those who are doing the right thing, from those who are cheating the system? It is tremendously frustrating, knowing there is so much that is being wasted on cheaters.I want to help those who need it so much, but not those who are cheating the system!
It would help so much to make the penalties for stealing from the system severe, so anyone who thinks about doing so, will think twice.Knowing there would be harsh consequences just from the first conviction might go a long ways. Because robbing from the tax payers is robbing from all of us. And we all have a say in this matter. Our politicians need to send that message out to those ripping off the systems and programs.
Agree with you...
It goes a lot deeper than this. There are so many loop holes it isn't funny. For example why are we paying adult family homes for nursing services when they are already being paid 3K+ per patient/month for their services? We shouldn't be subsidizing their work with government perks and bonuses. Many of them are paid by medicaid with the patient paying their share. If states want to put money back in budget they should put a stop to this practice.
Stuttgart I am a Democrat but totally agree with the Republicans stance on fraud. In fact I agree with Republicans on a lot of issues but Obamacare is not one of them. I think we need to look at what we agree on and what unites us versus what divides us. In terms but of Obamacare, my husband was paralized from tumors in his spine. He was in severe pain for months but we didn't ave health insurance so he refused to go to the doctor or the ER because we couldn't afford it. And oh, prior to getting cancer he was laid off from his job after 15 years. He was a week away from deaths door. I don't know how anyone can afford the care involved (about 2 million dollars to date). I cried and was in so much emotional pain when I thought he would die just because we couldn't afford his treatment, that some felt his life was worth less just because we couldn't afford his chemo. He is alive and is able to walk again. Although he is disabled, he worked his whole life and paid into social security. With that said, I have an issue with how much the drugs cost to save his life. I have an issue with our inefficient health care system, the fraud and waste. I have an issue with paying for those who have self inflicted health conditions and who refuse to take any personal responsibility. I also have an issue with providing illegals with care and services when we don't have enough money for our own citizens. When we complain, as a Democrat or Republican, I think we need to narrow down the issues. As a Republican do you believe my husband should have died and the government shouldn't have helped him live so he could live? Or do you only have an issue with certain groups and situations?
how dare you!!!... that man has a right to live you bleeding a**h***... don't tell me idiots like you refuse medical care because it might cost money??? really!! really??? i'm sure that should it become your time you'll have your hands out!!! may god forgive you for your attitude.. just remember we all have to meet god someday.. and we'll all have to answer to him for our wrongs... including you!!
mdt-2577584,As a taxpayer I do not mind people such as your husband getting the healthcare and treatments that he needed.I have a problem with the outrageous fees that hospitals radiology etc. charge.this is me personally speaking,who has health insurance through an employer that I retired from,I would not want to be in pain but also wouldn't want a bunch of modern miracles keeping me alive unless I had a semblance of a quality of life.I am sorry that your husband had to suffer from any pain and both of you from the emotional stress that you were put under.I can't imagine having to watch somebody that you love suffer like that.I am glad that he finally received treatment for his condition and wish you both a long,healthy and prosperous life.You both are tough cookies,that's for sure.
Just A cleaning lady-I agree with you about the exorbitant fees. Being by my husbands side day and night during 14 hospitalizations was an eye opener as far as the health care system goes. And even if someone has insurance, how many can afford 20 % co-pays on a million dollars should they be struck with a major illness like cancer. I don't know of too many people with that kind of cash sitting around . Many think you can sell your house to pay the bills bit it isn't that easy especially when you are in the middle of a medical crises. Until now no one had to worry about it because our health insurance paid for everything. Now we are all forced to pay attention. The situation we were thrown into can happen to anyone and would definitely change ones perspective and opinion. We are young and are only in our late 50's. I had a very successful small business but no insurance. My husband lost his job through no fault of his own. If we had insurance and he was able to see a doctor sooner, the damage wouldn't have been as bad and he wouldn't be disabled. Instead as the cancer advanced and the tumors were growing rapidly, he became critically ill and was hospitalized 14 times in a six month period. That doesn't make economic sense to me. If we had the ability to go to the doctor sooner and the cancer was detected sooner, he would have required a lot less care and fewer or no hospitalizations. In the end after all is said and done, our lives have changed for the better; life is the biggest gift that God could have given us. We were in love before but even more so now. We are inseparable and that alone gives us great joy and quality of life. We are grateful he is alive and able to walk again. Thank you for your well wishes.
We can't go on spending money we don't have for fraud in social programs.
This is why the rich should be paying more taxes.
Then we'd have the money to pay for the fraud.
You're greatly overestimating the amount of money that will be generated by raising taxes on "the rich." The real value to the government is not in dollars; it's in demonizing someone, ANYONE, who can deflect attention from the kind of ineptness described in this article. Taxes need to go up on everyone. We have a real-time example of what paying the piper looks like; Greece, Spain, and soon, France. For now, Obama's happy attacking the "Boogey Rich Man," and ignoring the real solution. The idiots in my party who signed on with Norquist are another problem. That's why I voted in the "Challenger" party. I voted against all incumbents.
The only racism exists in people's minds. When we see it or hear it, it is our responsibility, as Americans, to point it out! The color of a person's skin does not make any person good or bad, it is the underlying thought processes that do. If we allow bigots to exist, they will infect us, just like any virus!
The Party on the right has decided to pick up the cast-offs of a normal non-religious, non racial, non-wealth based society, and panders to the craven, the rich, the isolationists, fascists, communists, and the anti-government wackos to garner enough votes to get 50% +1 of the vote! Romney doesn't care about the other 50% -1. We heard him say it in his own words as he represented every Republican!
While you righties may disagree with what I just keyed, please remember that the wealthy seem to be perfectly fine with "communism" as long as they are making profit from it in the "Romney Enterprise Zones" in slave labor communist countries, around the world!
How you righties can blame Obama for being a communist, who is trying to give all Americans a chance to get to Middle Class status, while the rich have been getting away with the whole pie for decades, is beyond reproach!
Righties, blaming the poor because there is a lack of jobs because (*cough*) Romney shipped the jobs to China and showed his buddies how to also do it at AT&T, DELL, HP, DOW, MONSANTO, WAL-MART, KOHL's, Staples, Toys-R-Us, Burlington Coat Factory, Sports Authority, Sealy Mattresses, Lowe's Home Improvement Centers, and every other chain store that sells imported crap, is seriously a lack of intelligence on the Republican side of the aisle!
If we want to rebuild our American industrial complex, then Americans need to purchase American-made goods again! We need to stop exporting war!
Buying Toyotas, or Hondas, or Hyundai's, or BMW's, or any car whose parts are more than 50% made in other countries does not keep our money state-side!
If our money goes out of our nation faster than it is coming in, and a big reason is the Romneys and aforementioned companies hide their profits from taxation by having LLC's in the Caymans, then blame yourselves for supporting the Republican Party, in control of the House of Representatives, who, less than a month ago, refused to close the loophole that gives tax breaks for American companies for shipping our jobs overseas, while the same bill would have rewarded our American companies for bringing jobs back!
This is what the "Bubble Party" gives Americans and Republicans blame our deficit on the poor?!!
For once in a lifestime, wake up! The proof is our weather changing, due to the greed of BP and the carbon producers, who would stifle green energy, for their own profits! Do any of us really think they care about anything except profit and loss? When BP puts out ads claiming they have invested 22 billion doillars into America, please understand it was Obama who levied that fine upon them for the oil disaster in the gulf! It was spent to repair a small portion of the damage, not out of the goodness of their hearts!
Republicans refuse to remove the subsidies for these huge multi-trillion dollar corporations!
Why would anyone be proud to say they are a Republican, while we have folks starving, looking for work, and Republicans would remove the welfare that keeps them alive?
Maybe it is because Republicans are trained to look down their nose, and never look up to see that the CEO with the whip is really who we should be fearing! Making America a wholly for-profit nation will never bring back the America the righties pretend like they want!
To return us to our roots, we need everybody working, everybody making a living wage, and the rich can take care of themselves! The rich do not need the loopholes if they do not enhance the American experience with it! Let's give the benefits to those who work hard, actually crafting things, not the investment class, who sit on their fat asses and make bets with our futures! Why should we reward Eric Cantor, who invested heavily in the stock market failure, while refusing to pass the regulations that would have stopped our great recession, while he laughed all the way to the Tea Party Bank when our economy tanked?
Let's all help our President to help our Middle Class, no matter what Party he is in. He, at least, claims to be for helping the working folk of our country! The least we can do, as Americans who believe in a voting system, is give him our support on those causes that help us!
TexasR,If people,including the middle class pay more taxes then they will spend less money on goods and services which will result in more employment.We should be taxed less and the government needs to reign in their frivolous spending on things that are not needed in which to run a country.
It is completely unacceptable that the government is contemplating cutting payments to legitimate providers while all of this fraud is going on. If the fraud is eliminated, total costs of medicare/medicaid will go down.
Eliminate the fraud before reducing payments to legitimate providers. As payments to providers are reduced, they will refuse to treat medicare and medicaid patients. Passing laws to require that they treat these patients is not the answer either. We don't need more gov't intervention.
Retired RVer, fraud is going to become unfortunately worse.
Now that election time is over and we have President Obama and the Democrats, the media is not painting a rosy fiscal picture. I like the USA Today newspaper cover page's chart, printed 11.14.12. Medicare payments to doctors reduced, etc.
What we have now is the foxes guarding the hen house. We also have a nation full of people who don't care if they cheat the government, in fact it is a crime not to at least try to cheat. Look at the people we elect, check into their past and see why this type of behavior is allowed and encouraged.
The folks who are cheating should be kicked out of the Medicaid program forever. The same thing should happen to all of the other human trash which is defrauding social security, social security disability, EBT, EITC and Medicare. Any involved doctors, lawyers or others so-called providers should also be banned from every receiving Social Security or Medicare.
I just had a black moma offer me a $100 food stamp for $50 cash in the walmart parking lot. she was big as a house.
I just had a black moma offer me a $100 food stamp for $50 cash in the walmart parking lot. she was big as a house.
Is that a $100 food stamp or $100 dollars in food stamps? Also I though Public Assistance benefits were electronic, so it isn't tangible currency.
So do I call you a liar or a god-damned liar?
Making her Black was a nice touch though...
STUTTGARt you are not living here then go away...
Sturr
Your full of crap. Not everyone is a lowlife thats on state aid..some need it until they get back on their feet then they are glad to go back to work. I worked 33 years in the gaming business before losing my job and had to go back to school and learn a new job. I was happy to go back to work and get off government aid but I am grateful to have their help for the time I was in need. Not everyone is a taker. I no alot of people who used to receive aid and are now back in the work force after getting retrained. I am grateful and Thank the state for the help I got but I was glad to get off it...as were my associates.
It looks like the REPUBLICAN STATES are not doing their JOBS. Cutting the responsibilities out of the STATES is not what the REPUBLICANS have been PREACHING ALL ALONG. Let the STATES take RESPONSIBILITIES. Well that is FINE but WHY ARE MOST OF THE ABUSE in the REPUBLICAN STATES.
More of the DO-NOTHINGS. De-regulations and Cut-Backs. Yea that works great for the THIEVES and SHYSTERS !!!!
Great JOB of Nothing REPUKES !!!
Alain, the election is over. You can relax and enjoy the downfall of the country you created voting in comrade obamski.
Alain,California,to my dismay,is a predominately Democratic state and welfare fraud runs rampant.We have one of the most generous welfare systems in this state which is why we are so populated.
Drug testing for these gimps. The 2 nd abuse of our handout and they can go lay by the road and beg like in the 3rd world countries.
When i got hurt (1973) i was put in sec8 housing. These people I lived with ripped of the system then and still are. Thanks to the help of the americans they gave me an opertunity to work which has paid my way for 40 years with no ssdi or medicare payments received. Wake up everyone can do somthing productive unless they just want to sit and get high. Or sit on their big fat welfare a$#es and have kids.
Really the kid with cerebral palsy, who has no control over limb movement, controls her electric wheel chair with the one hand she can control, with a feeding tube? Yeah actually you are right she did, she managed to finish HS and two years of college before her condition became too bad for her to continue, but she never would have made it that far without personal care services. Her mother's back became to bad too continue lifting her after she turned 14. She would have had to be institutionalized w/o that program. That would have killed her.
Or the marginally abled who need a few hours of service a day. Someone to make sure they are taking their meds, or assitance with bathing. Those individuals usually do work at least part time.
The primary users of these programs are the people who really need them. The welfare queen is a myth and has been debunked, are there scammers out there? Absolutely. Whose fault is that? You can't just blame it on the government. Its people like you that are part of the problem. Did you report them?
TamL,I see your point but in this modern day world there is no reason for a woman to give birth to a child with cerebral palsy.There are tests that can be done during the gestation period but people's religious views prevent them from aborting.I am not heartless but it is not society's duty nor responsibility to take care of other people's children financially in any way,shape or form.Our new neighbor does not live in the house that she has spent a fortune on remodeling.Her cerebral palsy daughter and mentally challenged brother live there.this lady owns five houses and has done this with the help of these two relatives disability checks.Just to add that the welfare queen's are alive and well in Calfornia.
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. There is no test for cerebral palsy, it is not genetic. It is brain damage that occurs prior to birth or during the birthing process. There are a number of causes for it, oxygen deprivation, oxygen overdose, medication passing the placenta barrier. BTW both of her parents work.
Silly "No Stress", it's the wealthy that create the social programs, the middle class who sit on their boards and the poor who use them. My Father worked his entire life, retired & when hospitalized for major illness received medicaid and recently substandard care and possible medicare fraud by a hospital as well as care facility. His family received no welfare, no handouts and we were taught as children that you ARE NOT entitled to ANYTHING unless you willing to work to earn it. That even with a great education, with a college degree, it does not mean you start at the top, that if you cannot find work in your field / area(s) of study that you should consider other areas of work & keep on looking in your respective area(s). That disability DOES NOT always mean DISABLED. THE RICH EMPLOYED MY FATHER, ENDORSED HIS PAYCHECK, he EARNED HIS MONEY FOR A LIVING. Simple economics, the wealthy already pay more in taxes. The private business owner, allow him / her to keep more of their money that could certainly mean the difference between creation or loss of jobs.
And can anybody imagine what it's going to be like when Obamacare kick in. OMG we're screwed.
No Democrat programs work, and you're an idiot if you vote for these scum
instead of flying that fool up there for a photo op, they should have sent the money he wasted on the trip to the people in need. the only thing he did was wastw jet fuel
We also need to look at the Welfare Fraud going on in this country.Having worked for a Home Health AgencyI have seen alot of both.Billions I am sure being spent on worthless no good people..
STUTTGART-ENOUGH already! Romney lost! put on your big boy panties and move on.
Personal care programs for individuals who are 'supposedly' nursing home level of care are rife with fraud. Adult children are paid to care for parents when the parents are actually babysitting their grandkids. The adult children charge their parents high rents for a room in their house and take large amounts for food. The adult children bill Medicaid for shopping services every time they go the the store for their own needs and grab one item for the parent. Doctors fill out forms saying their patient needs help with personal care on the patients word (or their caregiver chikd) and not actual facts.
Basically, this program needs to be put on hold until safeguards are developed. Need for the services must be better monitored to make it available only to those truly in need and timesheets for the caregivers should be closely scrutinized. An independent physician should be involved in determing need.
Mercy Care and Scan are just two of the Insurance companies who are part of the Arizona Medicaid System. The companies who contract with these such insurances to ship medical supplies, equipment, etc.(such as Apria) sometimes repeadily send the wrong supplies, etc. to patients and will not pick them up until after Medicaid is already billed (if they will or do pick them up) then they charge Medicaid again for the correct supplies. This has happened repeadily to my niece. Calling the Case Managers or the company who sent the wrong supplies are a waste of time....as they dont return phone calls.
How many ads do you see in the newspaper for medical hospital type beds, etc. (being sold by private citizens) These types of equipment are expensive and reuseable should be returned to the supplier or Medicaid, but a majority of the time after the patient no longer needs the equipment, no one cares. What a waste of Medicaid/Medicare funds.
One company I know of has seven or more Care Giver facilitity homes with a lot of dementia residents. My niece was in one such home (it was a very pretty home..well furnished) but the only caregivers were from Kenya who were supposedly here going to school and working in the home. They had no idea how to cook American foods and the residents were only given hot dogs and top ramen most of the time. The home did have a listed menu posted just in case the authorities came in to check. One of the administrators came in while I was visiting and I asked here if the posted menu foods were what the residents were being fed...she looked in the refrigerator.....duh....The next day a man came in with bags of food items. And, to top it off....monies being paid my medicaid/medicare were $4,000 - $5,000 or more per month. One of the caregivers didn't speak English and I doubt she understood much.
It is a known fact, that foreigners are coming to the US and setting up these Care Homes all over the country....and sometimes collecting $30,000/month if they have six residents living there. What is the state and the FBI doing to regulate these places? We looked at one place in AZ that I wouldn't even let my dog live there.
God help these poor souls being put in these homes and forgotten....a lot of them have no relatives who visit or keep in touch. WHERE ARE THE AUTHORITIES AT....THEY NEED TO START DOING THEIR JOBS....HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE DYING BECAUSE OF THE INCOMPENTENCE OF THE CAREGIVERS. One family I know of brought their mother to a facility where my niece was living and she is a diabetic...the family was told they needed to show the caregiver how to give the mother her insulin.....You bet....they took their mother out immediately....and Medicaid/Medicare was going to have her reside there....At a lot of the homes, many of the caregivers who work there give out medicine....and if they don't write it down on the med records (which happens I know) that person could die from over medication when another caregiver gives the same medication.
My aunt had Scan.I called it Scam.she got substandard medical caee.My Mother finally got her to switch to a more reputable insurance company.
This is what our tax dollars are supposed to prevent, but lax oversight, due to funding restraints, allow it to happen! How about putting some of those wealthy tax increases to work, keeping an eye on the foxes in the henhouse, instead of handing the keys to car elevators to the rich, who don't appreciate it anyway!
Funding restraints? Are you KIDDING???????
The present Federal Government not only has NO funding restraints in place, it doesn't even have a BUDGET and hasn't had one in THREE YEARS.
Thanks to Harry Reid the government now spends MORE than it EVER HAS, with Trillion dollar deficits, massive borrowing, and massive debt.
How about people HIRED under this administration DO THEIR JOBS instead of having geniuses from the left thinking that STEALING even MORE money from those that actually WORK in this country and spending it to hire even more people is the answer?
Why is there NO BUDGET. The GOP PARTY OF NO signed an agrement to not work with the PRESIDENT. Oh wait, the GOP isn't responsible for anything in this country are they.
Thanks to the GOP... and THE DEMS, our government spends more than it should. Like usual, you ignore the 5 TRILLION from the GOP and PRESIDENT BUSH. Oh wait, they never did that, we are just supposed to pretend the 11 TRILLON deficit from BUSH to Obama never happened.
Why do I bother, its apparent you are completely jaded and don't have a real CLUE about anything but what you think is correct. No wonder our educational system is a decline.
It is nice for people to be able to stay in their homes but if Medicaid is being ripped off so much then I don't see how it is more affordable for the government.
I take care of my HIV positive adult son full time 24/7 and I dont mind it.he is my son and I love him. I get paid $10 an hour/58 hours a month. That is what the government pays me and I have to pay $18 a month of that to the union. That is not what I am trying to point out. What I am trying to point out is... If I were to have my son put in a government nursing home they would charge the tax payer $6000 a month ..now who is the real thief ??
I have a caseworker ready to come see us and at my beckon call if I need her. It is cheaper and less stessful on the patient to keep them in their homes. Not all caregivers are heartless jerks.
Bla bla bla,,get ready to go to jail fraudsters
The GOP,aka talaban need a bullet,,looosers
Home health care saves the taxpayers millions of dollars. Putting all these people in nursing homes or hospitals would cost a whole lot more than home health care.
The people who get home health care are often terminally ill or suffer from debilitating illness or injury. There caregivers change adult diapers, change wet beds, bathe patients, do laundry, cook meals, feed the patients, vacuum, dust, clean bathrooms, and try to provide companionship and human interaction to the homebound who are often virtually forgotten by everyone else. They do the shopping, take patients to dentists and doctors, monitor medications, and so on. They do this for very little money, about $10 an hour. Do you think a hospital would be this cheap?
Find the fraud and prosecute those who are abusing the system, but don't deprive those who need these caregivers of their services. It would break their hearts and their spirits and cost you a whole lot more money.