Happy Wednesday, dear readers!  When I was growing up, the primary purpose in camels was to sling cigarettes to easily brainwashed kids looking to be cool.  Ever since the gubmn’t got involved in regulating smoking many of these poor animals are out of the job, with the few still employed focused on serving as humiliated mascots for Wednesday, also known as “hump day”.

Speaking of job retraining, just before Christmas WorkCompCentral reported on VABAD Inc. (dba Career Advancement Solutions), and the Santa Clara District Attorney’s charges against the organization and certain individuals related thereto in a fraud scheme.  The names of these individuals are not listed here as these are yet charges, and not convictions, but if you’re dying to know then a bit of diligent googling will give you the answers.

In any case, the DA has charged the defendants with charging billing carriers for retraining services that were never provided and for paying kickbacks for referrals.  If the charges are taken at face value, then VABAD/Career Advancement Solutions collected proceeds on some $1.6 million and paid over $300k of that in kickbacks.  As alleged, the defendants would collect the voucher money and convert some of it to cash for the injured workers, keeping the rest.

So what?  I mean, it’s just $6k – when you’re talking about exposure for a lifetime of medical care, it’s a drop in the bucket, right?  Remember, dear readers, the classic Kipling poem regarding Dane-Geld: “That if you once have paid him the Dane-geld you never get rid of the Dane.”

The attitude of paying out vouchers unnecessarily or not policing their use makes voucher fraud such a tempting target.  If applicant attorneys demanded an extra $6,000 on top of every settlement “just because” we’d balk at it.  But that’s what’s happening here – if a voc rehab entity is converting the $6,000 voucher into a $1,000 check (for example) for injured workers who have no intent in using the voucher anyway, then there’s plenty of incentive to pursue the voucher at every turn.

So, what can you do?

Is the facility “providing” the computer and demanding $1,000?  That’s a no-go because the voc rehab folks are not allowed to sell a computer to the injured worker.

Are they charging more for their classes than what’s listed on the EDD website?  Are the classes as submitted for approval to EDD for ETPL approval different in nature or price from what is being submitted to the insurer for approval?  Are the classes to be provided to the injured worker exceeding the work restrictions imposed by the treating physician or med-legal expert (for example, is the carpal-tunnel claimant who can’t type being given “word processing classes”?).

I know it seems like investigating and litigating these vouchers is a chore – it’s $6,000 to get rid of a file.  But the problem is that lax monitoring or enforcement is going to run up a bill much larger than $6,000 because it encourages more and more fraudulent demands.  By contrast, stiff enforcement of proper use of a voucher will discourage those that have no intention of benefiting from the re-training, and the voucher money might never be lost to the employer as the voucher might expire unused.

Your humble blogger is one of those old-fashioned folks that follows that oh-so-American maxim: “millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.”  And so, however self-serving this must sound coming from a defense attorney, I urge my beloved readers to opt for thousands in litigation dollars, but not one cent for fraudulent vouchers.