California Says Most of the 345,000 Halted Disability Claims Are Fraudulent

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — After suspending 345,000 disability checks because of fraud concerns, California officials on Thursday confirmed nearly all of those suspected claims were associated with criminals trying to trick the state into paying them.

The Employment Development Department announced earlier this month that they had halted payments on those 345,000 disability claims associated with 27,000 suspicious doctors. On Thursday, the department announced it had verified the identity of just 485 of those doctors — meaning about 98% of them are likely fraudulent.

“The few providers that were not fraud — but instead victims of identity theft — are completing verification along with their patients to then resume certifying claims,” the department said in a news release.

Read the entire news article.  OC Register, by Adam Beam, January 28, 2022