The latest MediCAL fraud involves Taxi Cabs

And very Happy Friday to you at twelve oh seven. In the West, it's the Giant Phillip Show, Mister Randy Wings in Culver City.

Well, John, despite all the hype, hotel bookings for the World Cup in Los Angeles are way below expectations. No, would you want to come here to watch soccer? And it's only eight games. The whole concept of having the World Cup in the entire continent of North America, where some games are being played in Mexico, some games are being played in Canada, and some games are being played in La San Jose, some games are being played in Kansas.

Well, my guess is if they do, they're going to be executive platinum but American Airlines by the time they're done. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is jellphone number one? Eight hundred two two two five two two two. Well, a lot of you have been emailing us over at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com asking

You know, just with your luck, you're going to come back for vacation and somebody that you said you're voting for is going to drop out.

Oh, one hundred percent. Whenever I go on vacation, that's when all hell breaks loose.

By the way, you understand that you're going on vacation with the three and a half weeks left before the election season is over. So if there really is another Katie Porter video out there, it's coming out when you're not here.

Sorry for the noise, I'm cutting carrots.

Oh.

In addition to that, Canada is going to declare war in Iceland. That's the way it works, all right. So that's all the housekeeping items I have for you today, and right now it's time to move on to the top story, where we've been uncovering a lot of waste, fraud and abuse. Originally, we found out about it in

Where Randy lives.

Well, now, Randy, we have a third to add to the list, and this time it involves the Bay Area. All right, this one is wild, But NBC Bay Area put out a massive story. They've been investigating this for months and months and months about a type of medical fraud that is insane. Apparently, one of the things that you can do when you qualify for medical is your low income and it will pay for your treatment. But John, it doesn't just pay for your treatment. Medical will also

Yes, this is a wild story. It is a huge story. I have it posted on my substack if you want to watch it and share it Randy Wangradio dot substack dot com. But we're going to play the entire twelve minute piece because it is fascinating. Archie Bunker, I thought I knew you. For more, Here's NBC in the Bay.

Tonight we uncover allegations of fraud in the Silicon Valley. This involves taxpayers, money, and low income Californians.

After a year of digging, Senior investigator reporter Bagad Shaban has our story that is already getting the attention of government investigators.

It's barely sunrise and this steady stream of taxi cabs might make you think this is an airport or some popular tourist attraction, but it's neither. Here comes one. For months, our investigative unit watched undercover. Which one is this as taxi? Here's one after taxi?

Here comes another.

One rolled in.

Did you get the car number one?

Nine to nine?

So what exactly is going on here? Well you should know since millions of your tax dollars are paying for it.

I'm we're paying for tax these people.

I would love to know what the tax rate would actually be if the stady California wasn't scammed.

Right and left imke what.

Our story starts with Jan Garcia, a whistleblower accusing some of defrauding the government, cheating taxpayers, and exploiting some of California's most vulnerable. He filed a complaint with government investigators, but before he spoke with them, he sat down with us.

Smart you go to the local news first.

You go to the place where you know the story is going to get told, because there are certain government investigators wink wink, Bob Bantata that don't really care about this.

No, and if the people do in the scamming campaign contributors, guess who he's gonna look out for.

First, think Kivili is like, what the hell.

His concerns have to do with medical California's version of Medicaid, which provides free health services to low income adults and children. The program also offers free transportation to get that medical treatment. And that doesn't mean the bus Nope. And that's where the taxis come in. The cab drivers charge by the mile through medical to take patients to their medical appointments. So the farther they drive, the more money they get.

That is a scam ola right there.

I wonder if they had any medical treatments in Tijuana.

Well, that whistleblower complaint accuses cavvies of paying recovering drug users if they agree to get their drug treatment at a clinic much farther away in a different county.

Like one hundred miles away, seems convenient. So there are people who are getting paid to get picked up and go to their appointment two counties from where they actually live. Because the taxicab drivers are getting paid by the mile by medical And of course there's nobody at medical looking at these one hundred mile taxi rides and thinking there's something strange going on here.

Sounds like they figured it out.

And then let the cabby become their regular driver, who can then bill all of that additional mileage to medical.

The money's disappearing and it's not being used for medical.

We spoke with three different patients who told us their taxi drivers repeatedly gave them cash payments to take almost daily trips to one specific clinic.

I'm not taking twenty dollars to sit in the back of a taxi for two hours.

Well, what do you think the odds are some of that money went for drugs?

There is that the Bark Program Center in Menlo Park, which in some cases is ten times farther than other similar facilities. The Bart Clinic is actually one of four drug treatment clinics approved for Santa Clara County medical patients.

Notice how they're saying drug treatment and not drug rehab.

What is this? A method owned clinic.

Could be drug treatment clinics approved for Santa Clara County medical patients, but it's the privately owned Bar clinic, the only one not run by the county and the only one located outside the county that's getting the vast majority of taxpayer funded rides. In just the final three months of last year, medical funds paid for more than twenty four thousand trips across all four clinics, but ninety two percent of those rides were to and from the Bark Clinic.

You know what this reminds me of. It reminds me of what Elon Musk had to say about Doge and why Doze didn't work. Because when you look at something like this and you go, Okay, this is obvious fraud. We have to cut this from the budget. It's not as if the people who are scamming the system are just going to take it on the chin. They're going to scream, and they're gonna yell, and they're going to say, this treatment is working, and you are cutting a successful

Well, and you know what, it reminds me of. One of the reasons that California became the hot bed for all of the drug addicts is our lacks drug laws. But one of the other reasons is specifically medicale. When we expanded medicaid to anybody who is low in that steps on California soil qualifying for thirty days of rehab.

I really do believe they could cut the taxes in half if we got rid of the waste, fraud, and abiose.

While there are plenty of legitimate reasons patients might prefer a certain medical center, the high traffic at the bart facility is raising questions.

It's always that clinic. Why does it have to be that clinic.

It doesn't make sense to you.

No, Garcia doesn't.

Work for medical and he's not a cab driver, But in his whistleblower complaint, he said he knows of two other passengers who have been taking those taxis roughly one hundred miles round trip per day to that very same clinic, even though they live within five miles of another treatment center.

He gives them toy it all the day.

Each person seems kind of low, but if you're an unemployed drug addict, twenty dollars a day, that buys you some meth. Well, and it's not as if you have another taxi right there where you can go. Okay, this one's willing to give me twenty will you give me fifty or how about one hundred and negotiate that way.

One of those passengers did confirm with us they do take those one hundred mile taxi trips, but denied accepting payments from his driver.

We know you're getting the money. Otherwise, why would you do that? Who would voluntarily sit in the back of a cab for an hour? No.

The only time I would ever consider doing that is for a dentist, because finding a good dentist is so difficult. If you have one the trust and you like, then I would be willing and I am willing to drive one hundred miles to go see that person. But for something like this, you just take whatever's closest to your house.

Is this the revenge that the cabbies are putting on us because everyone prefers Lyft and uber and Weimo.

You know, I was just thinking about that recently. How do they stay in business because it's so much easier and so much more convenient to do the ride share apps than it is to hail a taxi. I guess maybe in New York City the taxis have an advantage over the ubers and the lift, but not here. How do they stay in business. Well, it looks like this is the way.

Medical is keeping these drivers employed.

The other passenger never got back to us. Our undercover investigation found other patients traveling just as far, upwards of two hours in those taxis for a single appointment at that same clinic, even though their rides take them past other clinics that are much closer. We've also learned there are currently no restrictions on how far a patient can travel to get this kind of drug treatment.

Of course there aren't.

They're imagining some old lady that lives on top of a mountain into hatchepee that needs to get to her doctor appointment and didn't realize how easily this could be exploited, and.

No caps on how much taxi companies can charge per trip. Here's one patient in their taxi after leaving the clinic at about six thirty in the morning. They're on Highway one oh one heading south. The cab eventually drives by all three of Santa Clara County's other drug treatment clinics before ultimately dropping off the passenger fifty miles away from the barred clinic.

At this point, they just all assume that no one's minding the store, and they can get away with murder because they're not even trying to hide what they're doing.

The biggest line item in the budget, next to education is healthcare, and part of the reason it is so expensive is there is so much of this crap going on.

These treatment centers offer recovering drug users medication called methodone.

I knew it.

I knew called it.

I knew it.

By the way, when I was listening to this this morning, I cut it off four minutes in because I knew we were going with it, and I didn't want to get spoiled.

But I knew it was methodone.

You call it.

These treatment centers offer recovering drug users medication called methodone to reduce cravings and lessen withdrawal symptoms. But patients need to get those meds in person just about every day, so the cost of those taxi rides adds up.

So you are paying someone twenty dollars a day, every single day that this is their job. Their job is paid for by the California taxpayer, to go get their methodone.

Unbelievable checker cab.

We started logging just how far taxis were traveling to drop off passengers who were leaving the clinic. Over the course of twenty rods, the cabs averaged close to thirty miles just one way. A quarter of them traveled roughly fifty miles in one direction. The cab company charges a medical four bucks a mile.

That adds up.

How is it that Gavin Newsom hasn't figured this out. He's been governor for eight years and he is not minding the score. He does not care about doing his own job. He only cares about presenting himself to the nation as a cab date for president.

The cabbies are pocketing two hundred dollars each way on these trips.

So just one of those roundtrip fayars costs about four hundred dollars.

There's a lot more to this story, and it is It is fascinating how easy it is to defraud Medical.

Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com and Randy. With the weekend quickly approaching, if you want to continue listening to us all weekend long.

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Well, let's do that right now.

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All right, let's go back to the latest scam that is costing California taxpayers dearly. This was uncovered by an incredible investigation from NBC Bay Area, where taxicab drivers are able to bill medical four dollars a mile for driving recovering Drug Act drug addicts to a methadone clinic that is fifty miles away. Let's continue from this incredible report from NBC in the Bay.

All paid for by you. You're talking about thousands of dollars in transportation costs every month just for one person.

Yeah, and you figure how many taxi drivers are going.

Over Here's another cab coming in.

We went under cover to find out what was that cab?

We counted, what does this mean?

The reporter had to act like your typical methodone patient.

Well, having worked at news my entire life, there's plenty of people in this industry who don't have to act.

We went under cover to find out what was that cab? We counted dozens of taxi drop offs each day over five days. Even before the door's open, there's usually a line of the taxis outside.

Oh forget what the clinic is charging for their methadone treatment services. How much money is medical dolling out every single year just to fraudulent taxi rides?

Sounds like a lot.

Oh yeah, Most passengers spent less than ten minutes inside to take their medication and then headed right back out to their cab driver for another trip home.

Number six to two.

In a single day, we counted nearly one hundred round trip taxi rides at that same methodone.

Clinic one hundred. So let's do a little math here. We're averaging four hundred dollars each way, So times that by two eight hundred dollars, then times that by one hundred eighty thousand dollars a day in taxi rides just for that one clinic.

And think about this for a moment. How often are you asked to vote to raise your own taxes because the government says they don't have enough money to fight fires and to police your community and to make sure that the roads are paved. But they have money for this.

If that clinic is opened three hundred and sixty five days a year, just in the taxi reimbursements, medical would be paying twenty nine million dollars.

Great, and we just for one clinic.

And we discovered nearly all of those taxis are part of this same company. Rainbow Checker and Yellow Cab of Silicon Valley all operate under Yellow Checker Cab, which has been providing transportation services for Santa Clara County medical patients for more than a decade. Larry Silva, this is their entire business model, because who's calling a taxi in twenty twenty six.

Nope, And they all need business licenses from you know who, the state of California.

Larry Silva, the president of Yellow Checker Cab, declined to talk with us on camera, but told us his company maintains a zero tolerance policy for fraud, waste or abuse.

Not buying that.

Yeah, it sounds like they're really on top of that one.

He also said his business has been unable to verify any allegations of kickbacks involving his roughly two hundred taxi drivers, who he says are independent contractors.

That was a yellow cab.

H We have spent the past year investigating the allegations. We reviewed hundreds of pages of public records, followed cabs to track the miles traveled, and spoke with taxi drivers and passengers. Most wouldn't talk with us on camera, but some did.

I get ten bucks a name for my driver, and but other people get twenty.

This why are you only getting ten?

I get ten bucks a name for my driver, and but other people get twenty.

Are they doing a voice altering thing or is just that how that person sounds.

Well after a lifetime of drug abuse, maybe that's what you end up with.

This patient told us she's homeless and relies on the money.

Hurt way. That was a woman.

Wait a minute, go back and play that again.

Now I get ten bucks a name for my driver, and but other people get twenty.

Let's assume they're altering the voice.

Maybe it's an East German swimmer.

This patient told us she's homeless and relies on the money her cab driver has been paying her in exchange for driving her to that Methodone clinic in Menlo Park nearly every day, even though it's forty five minutes away from where she's been sleeping.

How do they pay you?

Why don't you just pitch up a tent right next to the Methodone clinic. Well, I guess you need to be driving that far otherwise. This is her job. Her job is to go to the Methodone clinic.

How many problems facing the state of California are caused by the homeless, because it's not just them living in the encampments creating blight in your community. Who are stealing bicycles and robbing pharmacies and those sorts of things. But look at all of these grifters, entire professions that exist off of dealing with the homeless, whether they be these phony bologne homeless services organizations, or the taxi cabs who

Well, and think about the cost when you're talking about all those different departments and services, and compare that to what they always say is the unbelievably expensive one hundred and thirty thousand dollars a year to put one of these people in prison.

You know what, I'd rather spend the money on putting them in prison.

And one of the reasons it is one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. If you're wondering why it's more expensive to go to prison than to Stanford, it's because we emptied out the prisons, but we didn't ever lower the contracts for the prison guards union, so that cost is being spread out over fewer prisoners.

But think about it this way, though, If you can cap the cost at that to keep them in prison, then your neighborhoods look better, crime rate goes down. You don't have to spend the money on these phony blowning organizations and these cab drivers who are scamming you and everyone else who's getting their piece of the action.

I bet you it costs us to.

Allow them to live on the streets in the encampments that it would to put them in very expensive prisons. And there might be people that think it's inhumane to put these people in prison. Okay, idea number two.

We take an uninhabited island, put a giant salt lick of meth in the middle of it, drop off provisions once a month, and they can fend for themselves.

Can you imagine what Catalina would look like? Then?

How do they pay you? In good question?

She wasn't the only one who told us about getting paid by a cab driver twenty books.

Okay, they're they're masking the voices. Yeah, women don't sound like that on their own.

I was giving our twenty books a week.

This patient told us he used to be twenty bucks a week.

You know, this is the same thing with the paying the humbless to fill out the fake signatures on the proposition petitions, which we have an update on that later on in the show. It's really cheap to hire the bums for all this stuff.

Wasn't there an episode of Seinfeld where Kramer was going to hire the bums to operate the rickshaws?

That's right.

This patient told us he used to get treatment at that same bart methodone clinic more than five years ago, and says even back then, the cash payments from Cabby's were happening, and we're well known among recovering drug.

Users, like everybody. I don't know of anybody who's to start Like.

Belfour, Everyone going to the methadone clinic is getting paid to go there by the cab driver and Randy.

Let's get back to the details regarding the latest scheme.

This is a scheme where medical dollars are going to taxi drivers to go incredibly long distances to take homeless people to methodone clinics, and they're paying the homeless people ten to twenty dollars in cash per trip.

He tells us at the time, he was sleeping under a bridge in San Jose and was willing to take the forty minute cab rine six days a week to the methodone clinic.

What do you think that cab smelled like, Oh, they might actually deserve the money, but.

Says he doesn't think his driver did anything wrong the way.

I looked at it, mcafter Ard, we're trying to hope he survived, you know what I mean. I never really looked at it. If than the rangemmitment.

Uh, the cab driver was making four hundred dollars a day off of your addicted ass.

Yeah, well that person clearly is lacking in judgment to begin with.

Plus, he said, for how effective is methodone and all these people that are on it are still homeless.

Yeah, it seems like this is just one great, big money saint, doesn't it.

Plus he says he enjoyed going to that location. Like many other patients we met, He told us he actually prefers the Menlo Park Methodone clinic because staff there is more lenient when patients relapse or fail mandatory drug tests.

Your tax dollars, kids, your tax dollars.

So this is a private clinic that they're getting money off of giving out their methodone to people that aren't even trying to be sober.

Get them kicked out of other programs.

That idea of where you meet the crime where they're at.

That is the harm reduction ethos, meet them where they are. And let's just not forget how much medical dollars go to things like giving out free needles and meth pipes.

So if you fail a drug test because you're justing positive for math or something else, they're.

Okay, this guy was definitely on math. Even with the voice altering, He's talking at a mile a minute.

You know what's funny.

When I graduated from graduate school, I was I think one of two getting a master's degree in political science, and there were essentially less than ten for all the normal subjects that you've heard of, math, history, English, that sort of thing. When they got to three different disciplines, they went on forever reading names and awarding degrees. One was education, of course, there's a lot of teachers out there. One was psychology, and one was public health. And I remember, oh, yes,

The evidence is like crystal clear on that. So if you fail a drug test because you're testing positive for math or something else, they're not going to cut your doughs or anything crazy like that.

So you can go get your method DOWNE which is supposed to deal with your opiate addiction, while you're still high on math, and the money.

That the cab drivers are giving you back in kickbacks is probably going to buy more math.

The bar clinic told us it uses an evidence based model of care to reduce overdose risk, which complies with federal and state requirements. As for those alleged payments from cab drivers, the clinic says it's now investigating and denied any involvement.

It is worrisome.

Amanda Brewster is a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She specialized it what do you think that Morlman's life?

I can only imagine.

No, thank you, just a whole bunch of little Barbara Ferrares.

She specializes in how medical systems use non medical services like free transportation to improve outcomes for patients. If taxpayers are getting stuck with the bill, Why not limit how far patients can travel, especially if there are comparable facilities closer to them.

When we're thinking about putting up hurdles to people accessing care, we want to do the math to make sure that we're not actually increasing the likelihood that people are going to need to use the hospital later on and then you end up with that pool of money.

Is it just something that if you're a public health director, every other word is and you know.

Think about what she's saying here.

She's saying that allowing the fraud to continue and the drug abuse to continue is following the science.

Having to go to pay for really expensive services.

Santa Clara County tells US it's launched its own government investigation into the allegations, but says it's legally obligated to approve care for patients at the Bart Clinic no matter the distance.

They are never going to do anything about this, never well, and this is the thing.

It's you can't even really call it fraud because what they're doing is legal.

It's not only legal, it is allowed or it is encouraged by those with advanced degrees in the subject.

They think this is a good thing.

A spokesperson telling us patients always have the right to choose where they receive treatment, regardless of cost or convenience. While the county is in charge of approving treatment for medical patients, it's actually another public agency, the Santa Clara Family Health Plan, that's responsible for paying transportation costs to

And these people don't regard it as fraud.

So that means the total cost is likely in the millions. That one was only here for five minutes. Now, as a result of our reporting, the Santa Clara Family Health Plan has opened an investigation, saying it's deeply troubled to hear of alleged kickbacks and pledged to take every possible action to prevent the misuse of taxpayer dollars. In fact, the agency.

Us Yeah, the only thing that apparently is against the law here is paying the homeless to take the cabs, but they can legally take If the homeless want to go to a clinic that's three hundred miles away, they can go to a clinic three hundred miles away, and the cab he can bill four dollars a mile for it.

How about this, Why doesn't Trump come in and just arrest all the bums because none of them are paying taxes on any of these kickbacks, that's technically tax fraud.

That's their income.

Maybe that's what needs to happen, all right, Just another example of California taxpayers being fleeceed by crooks and California public officials allowing it to happen knowingly