Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced that approximately $32 million in grants is to go to the various District Attorneys’ Offices in California to help combat California Workers’ Compensation fraud.  You can read the press release here.

Although I generally don’t like the state spending money, especially at times like these, I find myself applauding the efforts to finance the fight against fraud.  I’ve detailed a few instances of insurance fraud before, including cases of applicants defrauding the state and local governments and insurance companies.  It’s never pretty and there are rarely appropriate remedies for the defrauded – just money spent in benefits, investigation and prosecution that will never return to its rightful owner.

However, good does come out of these efforts, chiefly in the form of personal deterrence, preventing the convicted fraudster from collecting more benefits, and general deterrence, in the form of would-be fraudsters being deterred from stealing from insurance companies and self-insured employers.

The law enforcement community is full of brave, hard-working and diligent men and women, both investigators and prosecutors, who work with their hard-working and diligent counterparts amongst the ranks of the adjusters to limit the fraud plaguing California’s Workers’ Compensation insurance industry.

One part of the press release which ended up giving my computer the frowning of a life-time was the following:

“The grant funding is the result of assessments on California employers that are determined annually by the Fraud Assessment Commission.”

If I am the victim of a pick-pocket, or if I come home to find my house burglarized, I should have access to police protection and assistance in investigating and prosecuting the case.  After all – I paid for them with my taxes.  Otherwise, shouldn’t my taxes go down and I can spend the money on private security?  California’s employers are already taxed – again and again, from corporate to payroll to income to who-knows-what-else.

Fraud is a crime that targets an individual business, but the effects are felt everywhere through higher prices, just like with any other form of theft.  It is unfair to levy yet another tax on the employers of California, burdened as they already are.

Perhaps we should consider pay-as-you-go uniformed police and fire departments as well?

In any case, for all your would-be and currently Workers’ Compensation fraudsters out there… Justice is Coming!