SUPERVISORS MULL 'MINING' TO SPOT FRAUD.Byline: TROY ANDERSON Staff Writer The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is the five member governing board of Los Angeles County, California. Members of the board of supervisors are elected by district, the current members as of April 2006 are:
The motion, sponsored by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich Michael Dennis Antonovich (born 1939 in Los Angeles, California) is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors representing the Fifth District, which covers northern Los Angeles County, the Antelope, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, and parts of the San Fernando and San , comes after a Daily News report found widespread fraud in federal, state and local government health and welfare programs by organized crime syndicates. The move would enhance fraud detection and prevention training among all county employees who administer public assistance programs and use new computer technologies to analyze databases and flag potential fraud for further investigation. Currently, the state and county are individually responsible for investigating fraud in their different programs. The state investigates fraud in the county-administered Medi-Cal and in-home care programs and the county investigates fraud in the county- administered child care, welfare and food stamp programs The US Food Stamp Program is a federal assistance program that provides food to low income people living in the United States. Benefits are distributed by the individual states, but the program is administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. . These agencies may not always be aware of fraud in each other's programs, Antonovich said. Last fiscal year, the Attorney General Office's Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse Elder Abuse Definition Elder abuse is a general term used to describe harmful acts toward an elderly adult, such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, financial exploitation, and neglect, including self-neglect. used "data mining" techniques to recover a record $274 million in Medi-Cal funds -- nearly as much as all the money recovered in the previous 15 years combined. "What this effort will do is have us begin collating information and cross-training our employees so we can all have the same data and ability to detect the fraud and break up the criminal rings that are operating within the county," Antonovich said. Experts estimate as much as $300 billion a year is lost to health care fraud alone in the U.S. -- more than half of it to organized crime. Billions more are siphoned off in welfare scams. The Department of Public Social Services social services Noun, pl welfare services provided by local authorities or a state agency for people with particular social needs social services npl → servicios mpl sociales will begin using a new centralized cen·tral·ize v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. computer system in July to help prevent fraud by accessing automated welfare, child care and housing data during the actual benefit process. Antonovich's spokesman Tony Bell said the "data mining" costs won't be known until the board gets results of a feasibility study "A Feasibility Study" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 13 April, 1964, during the first season. It was remade in 1997 as part of the revived The Outer Limits series with a minor title change. . troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com (213) 974-8985 |
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