Fighting the Public Charge Issue: Health Care in Los Angeles County

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 22.3 percent of immigrant households received Medicaid assistance in the year 2002.

One of the main problems is that many "sponsored," legal immigrants are illegally becoming public charges of the welfare and health care systems. Hospitals and welfare agencies further the problem by failing to keep adequate records on the status of patients and recipients. In light of the significance of this issue, Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) is actively campaigning for enforcement of immigration law in order to end the public charge problem in America.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for specific legal mechanisms to limit abuse of the welfare system, providing for reimbursement actions against the sponsor of any immigrant public charge. However, due to lack of information, and political fecklessness, welfare agencies aren't seeking reimbursement.

The problem is serious: in Los Angeles County, for example, the Department of Health Services is running a deficit this year of $205 million. Rampant abuse by immigrants--both legal and illegal--plays a significant role in this financial crisis.

Hospitals that turn a blind eye to use of the Medicaid system by sponsored immigrants not only contribute to the problem, but they wrongly force taxpayers to foot medical bills for foreigners. Instead, hospitals should be seeking reimbursement from the immigrant's sponsors--as allowed for by law.

Employees and others who have direct knowledge of incidents in which immigrants have wrongly accessed medical services in Los Angeles County may be able to file a qui tam action. The action is a kind of "whistle-blower" suit that provides private parties to successful suits a percentage of any settlement.

In other words, say you work in the record keeping department of a public hospital in Los Angeles, and you have direct knowledge that the hospital is billing the government for routine medical procedures for immigrants. You should contact us. It is possible that you may be able to bring a qui tam action in court to help the government recapture the funds it has wrongly paid.

If the suit is successful for the government, YOU get a percentage of the winnings.

For more information:

Public charge and violations of "Affidavits of Support"
Jason Wyrick