is this a form of medicaid abuse?

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I have an aide I work with who is just one yr older than me...27...she has 6 kids! 4 of them are in diapers still....4 of them have the same dad who was killed (was on drugs etc according to her)...the other 2 have different dads and are 1 yr old and 4 mos old. ...anyways...She works prn and makes less than 10/ hr. She gets all kinds of assistance...her rent is paid, she gets right at 1000.00/mo in food stamps (which by the way SHE SELLS), her electric bills are paid and she doesnt have to buy diapers, formula, or pay for her kids insurance as every one of them get medicaid....including herself somehow. With this 6th baby..all of us at work stayed on her about the need to get her tubes tied. She did...now she says that when she 'COLLECTS MONEY" from someones insurance that hit her car a few mos back that she is going to get them un tied. Now....to add to this....we pay for her kids plus thousands more ....which im sure need the help....but...she also told me that during all of her pregnancies she drank and did some drugs. She made the comment about getting her tubes untied the other night at work and said "well..I didnt even have to pay to get them tied"...and I d had it! I said to her...'yea...we know you didnt pay for it...all of us that work in this county paid for it...just like we pay for all these babies and the food stamps that get sold"....I asked her what she would do if the state decided to say ok....medicaid is not going to pay for your medical bills any longer..we will just pay 80 percent and you will be responsible for the remaining 20...and for each md visit you will have a 30.00 copay and for each ER visit you will be required to pay a 100.00 copay along with what we wont cover. And you will have to pay a yearly deductible x amt for each child that recieves medicaid.......??...she couldnt answer me. The most likely answer is that she wouldnt pay the bills. ...I also asked her how she'd feed her kids if the state had to cut funds for food stamps? I mean ...you must not be in dire need of that much if you're selling them right? I think this is a huge abuse of the states assistance to lower income people and its how alot of laid off workers families get denied benefits around my area. It just burns me up when I hear her talk about all the help she gets and there are so many other people who have no kids or just 1 or 2 that cant get by in these economic times. Did I mention she drives a new escalade? its to full capacity as far as passengers and car seats go......shes even said before that when she takes one kid to the er or md ...she makes sure all of them get seen....and she frequents the er...its become nearly weekly at the taxpayers expense. Im just not understanding how any state can allow this nonsense to go on. I dont know a whole lot about politics and all this healthcare reform business...but am I wrong to think that this is abuse of our system ?

Specializes in LTC.

At least Im not alone on my thinking on this one...my husbands cousin actually works for DSS in the benefit dept for food stamps....I thought about maybe putting a "bug in her ear" about this and just see if she can look into it. Oh...and speaking of daycare....that is also FREE to her. I only have 1 son..2 yrs old and I cannot afford any type of daycare part or fulltime. I dont have an extra 400/mo for it. I wish I did so he could socialize with kids his own age. My son doesnt qualify for medicaid or even health choice b/c I make too much money. I had no choice but to put me, my dh and my son on family insurance thru my job....I pay over 251 every 2 wks for insurance that is less than good. If one of us has to go to the ER ...the copay is 300.00. Who has an extra 300 to give to an ER? by the time you pay that kind of a copay....plus 20% of the ER bill...you're probably looking at a good 700. 00 ER bill when the total cost might be around 900 or so. Its crazy. When I finally spoke up and said what I said to her the other night...it was a long time coming...I heard her bragging thru the past 2 pregnancies and then some about all the stuff she gets. I just could not contain myself this time. It got to me. Ive even tried to talk to her about going back to school. I asked her why she didnt go to school seeing as how that would also be FREE to get herself better educated and able to actually provide for her family ......I think she doesnt really want to b/c if she could get a better paying job say..as a nurse or what not....she'd lose her free benefits. I worked as a cna weekends making 9/ hr to get myself thru the LPN program...I lived off of literally my spare change to get to school and eat etc...plus I got NO aid for my education. i paid for it in cash....I was too young for pell they said....I made 12000/yr or less but wasnt 24 yrs old at the time and had no kids. The fin aid dept said if i got pregna.nt I would qualify and that they couldnt help me. A wk before I was to take my boards I found out I was pregnant....I did get WIC thank god...but luckily the income wasnt a deciding factor in that one. I only had it the first year of his life for his formula...but I ended up having to buy more formula out of my pocket b/c the amt they covered wasnt enough. I wish this area was reformed and had some better guidelines to it in cases like hers. I honestly think that she is addicted to pregnancy. I think she feeds off the attention...I personally couldnt imagine selling food stamps that I needed to feed my child. My next ? is this.....can this stuff be reported anonymously? Is it better to do it in writing...or by phone? And how exactly is the best way to "word" the situation when it is reported?

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Specializes in all areas.

FOR THE SAKE OF ALL THE WORKING PEOPLE, PLEASE,PLEASE, TURN HER IN!!! :banghead:

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

If you know someone working in the DHS office wouldn't you want to ask them how to handle reporting her? Just call and ask who would you speak to, to report someone who is selling thier food stamps. You might not be able to remain anonoymous as they would need proof that she is selling the stamps and your testiomony would be proof. But PLEASE report her!

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one thing that made me mad, for more reasons than one, is that the case worker very quietly leaned forward and said "if you were black or hispanic, you would be approved for just about everything." lets see, discrimination towards me, steriotyping towards said ethnicities, racism, and being unprofessional.

wow. i was told once by a case worker that if i was a 'crackhead' that i would be able to get everything no problem.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

Also keep in mind, that the #1 reason that people sell foods stamps, is not to supplement a need such as over-the-counter medicine that they may need, paper towels, or other non-food necessities that food stamps don't cover.

They sell them to buy drugs.

You also don't know if those children are getting fed...at all.

That is reason enough to turn her in.

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Specializes in L&D, QI, Public Health.

Yes, report her so her kids will go into foster care so we can pay for that too.

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It is illegal to sell food stamps, unfortunately people have been doing it for years. It just makes me crazy to hear things like this. I had to practically beg for help when I had no income & then they also wanted to count my grants & scholarships for school as income & that cut my food stamp benefit down to almost nothing! They are plenty of poeple out there who actually need & deserve help & can't get it. Then there are people out there who abuse the heck out of the system & keep popping out kids just because they can!

She needs to be turned in. The only real problem with that is, her kids will end up suffering because she's an idiot.:banghead:

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wow. i was told once by a case worker that if i was a 'crackhead' that i would be able to get everything no problem.

a crackhead with kids! even straight crackheads can't get away with this sort of robbery.

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Specializes in Primary Care, Critical Care.

How do people still sell food stamps if the states are issuing them as EBT cards?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, educator.

A girl at work would give her daughter half the dollar value, and she had the pin number to the card....that's how they got away with it using EBT system. Makes me mad, because her daughter drives a new SUV, which is in mama's name, high fallutin cell phone with all the bells and whistles in mama's name. She was turned in, and basically the coworker who tried to turn them in said that if there wasn't anything in her name, then not much could be done about. Honked me off in the biggest way

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A girl at work would give her daughter half the dollar value, and she had the pin number to the card....that's how they got away with it using EBT system. Makes me mad, because her daughter drives a new SUV, which is in mama's name, high fallutin cell phone with all the bells and whistles in mama's name. She was turned in, and basically the coworker who tried to turn them in said that if there wasn't anything in her name, then not much could be done about. Honked me off in the biggest way

the mother is also guilty, if she were to be caught, that would be sweet, very sweet....

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

Like everyone else is saying....turn her in!! Not just for us working stiffs...but for the people that actually follow the rules and need help-whom which she is ALSO stealing from. Although she did not have to pay to have her tubes tied, I can not imagine Medicaid would pay to get them untied...not with as many children she has and as much assistance as she is already getting. When I was younger and working in a physicians office I had a patient on Medi-Cal (California Medicaid) that drove a 40,000 truck and owned a 250,000 house...I still regret not turning him in...don't make the same mistake I did.

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