California charges 42 in home nursing scam

LOS ANGELES, July 9 (UPI) -- Investigators say 42 people have been charged in Southern California with defrauding the state's Medi-Cal system for in-home nursing services.

The indictment announced Thursday in Los Angeles focused on nearly $4.6 million billed for services that were performed by unlicensed caregivers at the homes of disabled patients.

"We believe that this is the largest single case alleging Medi-Cal fraud ever filed in the state," U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said in a written statement. "The nearly four dozen people associated with this fraud ring not only cheated taxpayers, they endangered the lives of young people they promised to protect and care for."

The alleged scam was run from 2004 to 2007 out of a Santa Fe Springs company that performed services such as maintaining feeding tubes, adjusting ventilators and administering medications to disabled young adults and children. The services were billed as if they had been performed by licensed vocational nurses; however, the indictment alleges many of the "nurses" either had no medical training or had been trained overseas but never licensed in the United States.

Their job performance was sometimes bad enough that parents reported they lacked the most basic skills. In one case, a flustered nurse bolted from a home in panic while another was unable to replace a tracheotomy tube that enabled a helpless patient to breath.

The two-year investigation also involved the FBI, Department of Health and Human Services and the California attorney general's office.