A report by the California Controller's office found $11.5 million is being spent to care for patients who are really dead.
According to the report, Kern County In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) providers had more than $100,00 in questionable payments, and a big portion of that comes from taxpayers' pockets.
Some people are blaming in-home care workers for using fraudulent Social Security numbers to get more money, while others chalk it up to clerical errors.
Either way, it adds up to millions in government waste for a program to care for elderly and disabled MediCal recipients.
"In many of these cases it could be that there was a paperwork error, that there was a typo in the Social Security number," California Controller Spokesman Jacob Roper said.
Of the millions of dollars in question, $100,074 came from Kern County. However, Lito Morillo of the Kern County Aging and Adult Services Department says the state report is misleading.
"We actually have a report that we get from the Department of Public Health of all the individuals that are deceased and using that report, which is provided on a monthly basis," Morillo said. "We are able to look at our system and find out who was recently deceased and that way we can take them off the services."
Morillo says around 4,700 Kern County residents rely on the IHSS program for help with cooking, cleaning, and other personal care needs.
"Fraud does compromise integrity and that's what people focus on but the majority of the program as a whole is really fair in terms of who really need the services," Morillo said.
The county is implementing new standards to prevent fraud like fingerprinting clients and providers of in-home care, and the Kern County Board of Supervisors is launching a fraud unit to investigate questionable in-home services payments.
"We have about 4,700 current providers who still need to go through the process of getting their fingerprints and background checks, filling out all the new forms," Morillo said. "Providing us with social security and government I.D. is part of that requirement."
According to Morillo, the fingerprints, background checks, and proof of I.D. have to be completed by June 30, 2010.
