Jan 13, 2012

In Case You Weren't Aware, Ohio Has A Republican Governor

From NBC4 in Ohio:
Inside a large building on the north side of Columbus is one of the most important offices in state government.
"We have about 600 employees now and we do over 212,000 claims for Ohioans with disabilities now for Social Security," said Erik Williamson, deputy director of the Division of Disability Determination with the Rehabilitation Services Commission (RSC).
It’s in the smallest office, where a handful of workers check to see who's above board in their claims, that some of the most important work is being performed.
The RSC said it is leading the country in fraud detection, recovering $42 million in fraud cases just last year.
"I think the nuances that you have to aware of is that with the economy the way it is, there are people trying to scam not just this system, any type of entitlement system to try and figure out how to pay rent," said Kevin Miller, the agency's director.
"The trend right now seems to be following mental allegations where as it was at one time more often physical," said Tom Melfo, manager of the Division of Disability Determination. ...
[L]ast year $6.5 billion was paid out in disability benefits.

At this rate, the fund will be dried up by 2017.
One of the problems, the agency said, is the number of lawyers trying to get the benefits that have been denied approved.
Their commercials are often aired during daytime programming.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

republican or democrat...seeking out and eliminating fraud is a good idea.

While you may not personally be involved in fraud, it happens and should be eliminated when possible.

Let's hope other states follow this!

Ken Karlock said...

I was interviewed as part of that story. I think the reporter threw the whole thing together in a couple of hours because it was a slow news day.

Anonymous said...

I love how it is only the attorneys that are the problem, not non-attorney representatives. Not to mention how irresponsible is for a DDS official to simply proclaim in the press that attorneys are the problem.

Anonymous said...

I don't know why Ohio DDS is complaining. They deny everything anyway.

Anonymous said...

"Their commercials are often aired during daytime programming."

Way to stick your thumb in the eye of your daytime advertising customers NBC4.

Anonymous said...

I love how access to the Court system is equated with fraud.

Anonymous said...

what court are you talking about? this is dds.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe the DDS feels representation (atty. or otherwise) increases the rate of fraud. Often times good representation benefits the filing individual and the taxpayer because the issues are, for lack of a better description, represented. I agree with Attorney Karlock's opinion that this "story" may be the result of a slow news day. Despite the statement in the article that "the agency" blamed attorney's, I find it interesting that there were no actual quotes to support the assertion. There certainly is no evidence that legal representation increases a person's likeliness to commit fraud.