Schwarzenegger administration considering buying $5,000 devices to combat in-home care fraud

[kpete]

Source: The Sacramento Bee

Schwarzenegger considers monitoring devices to track in-home health care

By Susan Ferriss | The Sacramento Bee

The Schwarzenegger administration is considering buying $5,000 high-tech devices to photograph and fingerprint Californians who get subsidized in-home care for the elderly and disabled.

The MorphoTrak "mobile biometric identification" device can fingerprint, snap a photo and transfer data to government systems, according to state social service officials.

Officials say legislators authorized and budgeted money to invest in tools to curb fraud and save millions of dollars.

The fingerprinting applies as of April 1 to any new recipients of the In-Home Supportive Services program.




Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/18/2615052/schwarzenegger-administration.html

[Webster Green]

1. Sounds like something you could build for about $100

Sell it for $250 and make a bundle.

[htuttle]

2. To prevent a handful of poor people from scamming the government...

...they buy these devices and end up getting scammed by a big business for a whole lot more.

Just another day in the kleptocracy...

[Schema Thing]

3. some plywood, a 4 mp camera, and an ink pad.

contractor/associate provides their own laptop :7

[spinbaby]

4. What kind of fraud?

I'm trying to imagine what kind of fraud this is preventing. Old and infirm people masquerading as other old and infirm people?

[Catshrink]

5. It's this magical thinking

that if we "cut the waste and fraud in government" we'd save so much money.... Of course, the ones they accuse of fraud are the poor - St. Ronnie called them Welfare Queens. This obscures the real frauds: the Blackwaters, bankers, insurance co., etc.

[Jefferson23]

6. $5000 to find fraud, how much to check on these people who often abuse the elderly??

[Mr. Sparkle]

7. It sounds like just another scam to get a republican contractor rich. n/t

[WinkyDink]

10. B.I.N.G.O.

[kpete]

8. arnold

the joke that broke california

[WinkyDink]

9. Yeah---target the elderly and the infirm. Wall Street? Here; have some billions!

[onpatrol98]

11. ???

Now...that's just dumb. Is there anyone in California that thinks he's been a good governor?

[LiberalFighter]

12. They can't use humans to verify eligibility?

They don't already have procedures in place to verify eligibility when they sign up? That involves a face to face visit at some point?

Technology is great but not always the best method.

[Bennyboy]

13. IHSS is the Republican Boogie Man.....

Spend a ton of money to save how much? dipshit. How many of these will they need? When I went to my orientation/don't defraud there were 300 people there.

I am in the program. They just instituted a program about fraud that makes it very hard to even enroll. You get 10.50 hr and you have to work a long time (6 Weeks min) before you even get paid. you have to undergo a bunch of seminars on fraud.

There are millions of people on the program, most are family. I have done this for three people now, one a family member. One I never did get paid.

No, Ahhnold wants to end the program. keep harping on it and end it. Of course this is not out in the open, but this program has been on his list for a long time. What happens after the program gets cut (and it will severely in the upcoming budget WAR we are going to have) and these people, like my Mother, who can no longer take care of themselves? Are we going to put them in a state sponsored home? And is that going to cost more in the long run? I did three years without being paid, and I am afraid I won't do anymore when my Mom gets just slightly worse. Not much, she can't make the toilet now in one stretch. Cooking dinner is a chore and a half.

[Odin2005]

14. Jesus. I get some in-home care and I would NEVER accept anything like this BS!

:grr: