103 home services providers charged with Medi-Cal fraud

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(The Center Square) – California investigators have filed felony charges against 103 In-Home Supportive Services providers across 17 counties for allegedly defrauding Medi-Cal out of more than $4.5 million.

The enforcement action follows an investigation by the California Department of Justice's Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse alongside the California Department of Health Care Services. Medi-Cal is California's name for Medicaid.

Officials say the providers unlawfully billed Medi-Cal for in-home care services while beneficiaries were admitted to acute care hospitals or skilled nursing facilities, where Medi-Cal also paid for the care.

"This isn't a political game for us," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a press conference Thursday in Los Angeles. "This is about protecting taxpayer dollars, protecting the programs that sick and vulnerable Californians rely on, and protecting our state."

Created in 1973 when Assembly Bill 134 was signed into law, California's IHSS program currently serves over 900,000 low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities annually, providing a home-based care model that state officials claim saves roughly $100,000 per participant each year compared to nursing home placement.

The 103 charged providers were from Butte, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Lake, Los Angeles, Napa, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma and Tulare counties.

Critics on Thursday argued Bonta's enforcement announcement comes too late and stems from political pressure. Michael Gates, a Republican candidate running against Bonta for California attorney general in the Nov. 3 election, criticized Bonta's timing and referenced recent oversight findings.

"Rob Bonta is a day late and a dollar short. He has been neglectful of this very fraud for five years," Gates told The Center Square in an email. "A State Auditor Report came out a few months ago indicating that State Leadership knew about this waste, fraud and abuse and apparently did nothing about it. Rob Bonta has been covering for corruption for years and is only talking about it now because it is election season."

Gates went on to say that "when" he is attorney general, he will "attack this kind of fraud with vigor and hold every criminal accountable by rendering swift justice."

Roxanne Hoge, chair of the Los Angeles County Republican Party (LAGOP), also weighed in on Bonta's announcement.

"Bless his heart, Rob Bonta never saw a parade he didn't want to get in front of," Hoge told The Center Square. "Los Angeles Republicans, like all sane Californians, are always ready to applaud the work of law enforcement, which should be apprehending criminals. I'm glad he's caught up, caught on to that fact."

The Center Square reached out to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for comment, but did not hear back by publication time.

Meanwhile, Bonta spent time during Thursday's press conference defending state oversight against criticism from Washington and firing back at federal officials over recent legal actions targeting California.

Addressing federal claims of widespread fraud within California's public benefit programs, Bonta pointed to state-led enforcement actions as evidence of oversight. Over the past decade, his office reported recovering over $1.5 billion in civil and criminal Medi-Cal fraud cases.

"In Washington, politicians accuse us of failing to fight fraud while at the same time threatening to withhold the Medicaid funding Californians count on," Bonta said. "While the White House spreads myths about rampant fraud, we'll keep dispelling them, not with words, but with work."

Bonta also took aim Thursday at a recent lawsuit filed by the federal government attempting to challenge California's voter rolls. Federal officials alleged that as many as 20,000 registered voters on the state's rolls may be ineligible and requested that vote-by-mail ballots not be sent or counted for those individuals.

"They showed us zero evidence," Bonta said, adding that his office filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit outright. "They are saying it's OK to disenfranchise an eligible voter. We have a high level of confidence that we will have this case dismissed. It has a weak set of claims. It has a weak set of facts."

In Oakland, U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to stop its investigations into nine states in whether noncitizens are registered to vote. But she delayed implementing her order until Friday to allow the administration to appeal. The states are California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.