We last heard from ambitious Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully in July, when she was a cheerleader at Gov. Schwarzenegger’s infamous fraud news conference.
As you may remember, that’s where the governor made the outrageous claim that the fraud rate in the state’s In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program is 25 percent or more. Following the news conference, the Sacramento Bee accused the governor of: “Spouting misleading rhetoric about waste and fraud” , while the San Jose Mercury-News called his allegations: “phantom claims.”
Nevertheless, it appears that Ms. Scully had so much fun at the governor’s dog-and-pony show, she decided to have one of her own yesterday to proclaim what she termed:”a new day” in Sacramento.
Flanked by team members in black shirts reading “IHSS Fraud Task Force,” Scully announced the arrest Wednesday of 12 people in Sacramento County who are accused of defrauding the in-home care program or other social services.
The cost to set up this multi-agency task force: $1.7 million.
You might think that Ms. Scully would have proof of widespread fraud in order to justify spending this kind of money on an anti-fraud campaign. But you’d be wrong:
Scully said she has no estimate for how much fraud exists in the in-home care program.
Here’s an estimate she could have used, but didn’t: In Sacramento County during fiscal year 2006-2007, there were fewer than 400 reports of suspected fraud out of 17,000 IHSS clients: a rate of only about two percent.
But why let the facts get in the way when you can score political points?
Unfortunately, what the overzealous Ms. Scully has done in Sacramento County is being replicated statewide by the Schwarzenegger Administration. Without any real proof of “massive” fraud, the state is spending tens of millions of dollars on its fraud crusade. Among other things, it has imposed onerous new requirements on the 460,000 low-income elderly, blind and disabled Californians in IHSS and those who care for them.
Treating Alzheimer’s patients like common criminals may be a low point in the history of our state’s criminal justice system. A new day, indeed.
Steve said: “Here’s an estimate she could have used, but didn’t: In Sacramento County during fiscal year 2006-2007, there were fewer than 400 reports of suspected fraud out of 17,000 IHSS clients: a rate of only about two percent.”
This seems like poor logic. The existence of “400 reports of suspected fraud” would not reflect the percentage of actual fraud, but rather the actual number of reports. Two other categories exist: (1) fraud that is known but not reported and (2) fraud that is unknown but existent.
Steve said: “Treating Alzheimer’s patients like common criminals may be a low point in the history of our state’s criminal justice system.”
I didn’t see anywhere in the news reports that Alzheimer’s patients are treated like criminals. Was there something that I missed? Was an Alzheimer’s patient treated poorly by the Task Force or the D.A. in Sacramento?