Mehlman, Steve
Steve Mehlman is Communications Director of the 65,000-member UDW Homecare Providers Union, California's only union made up entirely of homecare workers.
State Plans to Spend Millions to Photograph In-Home Supportive Service Consumers Despite Lack of Authority, Proof
By Steve Mehlman
UDW Homecare Providers Union
Without any authority from the Legislature, the Schwarzenegger Administration is planning to purchase up to $5 million worth of military/security cameras to take pictures of the 450,000 seniors and people with disabilities who receive In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) homecare.
Last year, the Legislature approved the administration’s proposal that county social workers must fingerprint all IHSS consumers as part of a so-called anti-fraud initiative. However, the Legislature neither discussed nor approved photographing consumers. Nor has the administration provided any evidence of how much fraud would be stopped by photographing and fingerprinting these consumers; all IHSS consumers must be visited and assessed at home by county social workers before being approved for the program.
How Low We've Sunk
By Steve Mehlman
UDW Homecare Providers Union
A homecare provider from San Diego told legislators yesterday how she and her client--a quadriplegic Vietnam veteran--were threatened and harrassed by a fraud investigator from the state.
Nancy Jo Riley of San Diego testified that she and her client were "randomly selected" for a fraud investigation last October as part of a new "anti-fraud" initiative by the state. According to Ms. Riley, the agent from the Department of Health Care Services (DCHS) first threatened in a phone call to cut off all IHSS unless she and her client met with him immediately.
At the subsequent meeting, the investigator asked her and her client a long series of "humiliating" questions. He then said he could not understand why a person with a severe disability like his should be subject to a fraud investigation in the first place.
Compassion? Only Some Of The Time.
By Steve Mehlman, UDW Homecare Providers Union
In case you missed it, link here to read the heartwarming story of Sara Granda, who was paralyzed from the neck down in an auto accident in 1997, but has gone on to get three college degrees and has just passed the State Bar Exam.
Gov. Schwarzenegger should be commended for going to bat for Sara so she could take the bar exam.
But down in San Diego, it’s a different story for Michael, who’s also a quadriplegic. Michael recently received a phone message from a fraud investigator from the Department of Health Care Services. He was told that if he didn’t contact the investigator immediately, he would lose his IHSS home care services. He complied. In a subsequent meeting, the investigator said he had no idea why someone like Michael would be targeted for a fraud investigation.