Speaker 1: And very Happy Friday to you at twelve oh seven.
Speaker 1: In the West, it's the Giant Phillip Show, Mister Randy
Speaker 1: Wings in Culver City.
Speaker 2: Well, John, despite all the hype, hotel bookings for the
Speaker 2: World Cup in Los Angeles are way below expectations. No,
Speaker 2: would you want to come here to watch soccer? And
Speaker 2: it's only eight games. The whole concept of having the
Speaker 2: World Cup in the entire continent of North America, where
Speaker 2: some games are being played in Mexico, some games are
Speaker 2: being played in Canada, and some games are being played
Speaker 2: in La San Jose, some games are being played in Kansas.
Speaker 2: It is so spread out. How exactly are soccer fans
Speaker 2: supposed to enjoy that?
Speaker 1: Well, my guess is if they do, they're going to
Speaker 1: be executive platinum but American Airlines by the time they're done.
Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is
Speaker 1: jellphone number one? Eight hundred two two two five two
Speaker 1: two two. Well, a lot of you have been emailing
Speaker 1: us over at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: That's Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com asking
Speaker 1: to take a peek at my ballot. And this is
Speaker 1: something we do every cycle here where people want to
Speaker 1: know how I'm voting on any particular race or proposition,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, and we put it up on
Speaker 1: the website over at KBC dot com, over at KSFO,
Speaker 1: and it is going to be up my ballot this cycle,
Speaker 1: this primary will be up by the end of the
Speaker 1: show today. Now, I am not suggesting that you vote
Speaker 1: exactly the same way that I do. I'm not telling
Speaker 1: you which way to vote one way or the other.
Speaker 1: I'm just letting you know how I voted in case
Speaker 1: you would like to know, because that's a regular question
Speaker 1: that we get asked. So if you're curious how I'm
Speaker 1: voting for governor or lieutenant governor or state superintendent of
Speaker 1: public instruction. I even got down to some of the
Speaker 1: county and the city initiatives, those sorts of things. That's
Speaker 1: going to be up and live on the website by
Speaker 1: the time we sign off today at three PM. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be on vacation next week and Randy will
Speaker 1: be hosting the program solo. When I get back from vacation,
Speaker 1: We're going to go through the ballot on the air,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to tell you just exactly why I'm
Speaker 1: voting the way I'm voting on all of the various
Speaker 1: races and propositions. So that'll be week after next when
Speaker 1: I'm back from vacation.
Speaker 2: You know, just with your luck, you're going to come
Speaker 2: back for vacation and somebody that you said you're voting
Speaker 2: for is going to drop out.
Speaker 1: Oh, one hundred percent. Whenever I go on vacation, that's
Speaker 1: when all hell breaks loose.
Speaker 2: By the way, you understand that you're going on vacation
Speaker 2: with the three and a half weeks left before the
Speaker 2: election season is over. So if there really is another
Speaker 2: Katie Porter video out there, it's coming out when you're
Speaker 2: not here.
Speaker 3: Sorry for the noise, I'm cutting carrots.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 1: In addition to that, Canada is going to declare war
Speaker 1: in Iceland. That's the way it works, all right. So
Speaker 1: that's all the housekeeping items I have for you today,
Speaker 1: and right now it's time to move on to the
Speaker 1: top story, where we've been uncovering a lot of waste,
Speaker 1: fraud and abuse. Originally, we found out about it in
Speaker 1: Minnesota with the various schools and daycare centers. Then attention
Speaker 1: shifted to California, San Fernando Valley when we learned about
Speaker 1: the hospice centers that we're all located in one building,
Speaker 1: in one neighborhood, and it just so happens it's pretty
Speaker 1: much right next to.
Speaker 5: Where Randy lives.
Speaker 1: Well, now, Randy, we have a third to add to
Speaker 1: the list, and this time it involves the Bay Area.
Speaker 1: All right, this one is wild, But NBC Bay Area
Speaker 1: put out a massive story. They've been investigating this for
Speaker 1: months and months and months about a type of medical
Speaker 1: fraud that is insane. Apparently, one of the things that
Speaker 1: you can do when you qualify for medical is your
Speaker 1: low income and it will pay for your treatment. But John,
Speaker 1: it doesn't just pay for your treatment. Medical will also
Speaker 1: pay for your transportation to and from your treatment. That
Speaker 1: has led to a whole bunch of crooked taxi drivers
Speaker 1: paying people twenty dollars to go on one hundred mile
Speaker 1: trips to a treatment center, way out of their way,
Speaker 1: way out of the way of their neighborhood. Because the
Speaker 1: taxis are getting reimbursed by medical. Now it's the taxi
Speaker 1: drivers that are scamming the government.
Speaker 2: Yes, this is a wild story. It is a huge story.
Speaker 2: I have it posted on my substack if you want
Speaker 2: to watch it and share it Randy Wangradio dot substack
Speaker 2: dot com. But we're going to play the entire twelve
Speaker 2: minute piece because it is fascinating. Archie Bunker, I thought
Speaker 2: I knew you. For more, Here's NBC in the Bay.
Speaker 3: Tonight we uncover allegations of fraud in the Silicon Valley.
Speaker 3: This involves taxpayers, money, and low income Californians.
Speaker 6: After a year of digging, Senior investigator reporter Bagad Shaban
Speaker 6: has our story that is already getting the attention of
Speaker 6: government investigators.
Speaker 3: It's barely sunrise and this steady stream of taxi cabs
Speaker 3: might make you think this is an airport or some
Speaker 3: popular tourist attraction, but it's neither. Here comes one. For months,
Speaker 3: our investigative unit watched undercover. Which one is this as taxi?
Speaker 3: Here's one after taxi?
Speaker 4: Here comes another.
Speaker 5: One rolled in.
Speaker 6: Did you get the car number one?
Speaker 4: Nine to nine?
Speaker 3: So what exactly is going on here? Well you should
Speaker 3: know since millions of your tax dollars are paying for it.
Speaker 7: I'm we're paying for tax these people.
Speaker 1: I would love to know what the tax rate would
Speaker 1: actually be if the stady California wasn't scammed.
Speaker 5: Right and left imke what.
Speaker 3: Our story starts with Jan Garcia, a whistleblower accusing some
Speaker 3: of defrauding the government, cheating taxpayers, and exploiting some of
Speaker 3: California's most vulnerable. He filed a complaint with government investigators,
Speaker 3: but before he spoke with them, he sat down with us.
Speaker 5: Smart you go to the local news first.
Speaker 2: You go to the place where you know the story
Speaker 2: is going to get told, because there are certain government
Speaker 2: investigators wink wink, Bob Bantata that don't really care about this.
Speaker 1: No, and if the people do in the scamming campaign contributors,
Speaker 1: guess who he's gonna look out for.
Speaker 4: First, think Kivili is like, what the hell.
Speaker 3: His concerns have to do with medical California's version of Medicaid,
Speaker 3: which provides free health services to low income adults and children.
Speaker 3: The program also offers free transportation to get that medical treatment.
Speaker 3: And that doesn't mean the bus Nope. And that's where
Speaker 3: the taxis come in. The cab drivers charge by the
Speaker 3: mile through medical to take patients to their medical appointments.
Speaker 3: So the farther they drive, the more money they get.
Speaker 7: That is a scam ola right there.
Speaker 1: I wonder if they had any medical treatments in Tijuana.
Speaker 3: Well, that whistleblower complaint accuses cavvies of paying recovering drug
Speaker 3: users if they agree to get their drug treatment at
Speaker 3: a clinic much farther away in a different county.
Speaker 2: Like one hundred miles away, seems convenient. So there are
Speaker 2: people who are getting paid to get picked up and
Speaker 2: go to their appointment two counties from where they actually live.
Speaker 2: Because the taxicab drivers are getting paid by the mile
Speaker 2: by medical And of course there's nobody at medical looking
Speaker 2: at these one hundred mile taxi rides and thinking there's
Speaker 2: something strange going on here.
Speaker 5: Sounds like they figured it out.
Speaker 3: And then let the cabby become their regular driver, who
Speaker 3: can then bill all of that additional mileage to medical.
Speaker 2: The money's disappearing and it's not being used for medical.
Speaker 3: We spoke with three different patients who told us their
Speaker 3: taxi drivers repeatedly gave them cash payments to take almost
Speaker 3: daily trips to one specific clinic.
Speaker 2: I'm not taking twenty dollars to sit in the back
Speaker 2: of a taxi for two hours.
Speaker 1: Well, what do you think the odds are some of
Speaker 1: that money went for drugs?
Speaker 3: There is that the Bark Program Center in Menlo Park,
Speaker 3: which in some cases is ten times farther than other
Speaker 3: similar facilities. The Bart Clinic is actually one of four
Speaker 3: drug treatment clinics approved for Santa Clara County medical patients.
Speaker 2: Notice how they're saying drug treatment and not drug rehab.
Speaker 7: What is this? A method owned clinic.
Speaker 3: Could be drug treatment clinics approved for Santa Clara County
Speaker 3: medical patients, but it's the privately owned Bar clinic, the
Speaker 3: only one not run by the county and the only
Speaker 3: one located outside the county that's getting the vast majority
Speaker 3: of taxpayer funded rides. In just the final three months
Speaker 3: of last year, medical funds paid for more than twenty
Speaker 3: four thousand trips across all four clinics, but ninety two
Speaker 3: percent of those rides were to and from the Bark Clinic.
Speaker 1: You know what this reminds me of. It reminds me
Speaker 1: of what Elon Musk had to say about Doge and
Speaker 1: why Doze didn't work. Because when you look at something
Speaker 1: like this and you go, Okay, this is obvious fraud.
Speaker 1: We have to cut this from the budget. It's not
Speaker 1: as if the people who are scamming the system are
Speaker 1: just going to take it on the chin. They're going
Speaker 1: to scream, and they're gonna yell, and they're going to say,
Speaker 1: this treatment is working, and you are cutting a successful
Speaker 1: program that is helping drug addicts kick their habit. And
Speaker 1: by cutting this, you're going to end up with more
Speaker 1: people living on the streets and the encampments are going
Speaker 1: to get bigger. How dare you cut a valuable program
Speaker 1: like this?
Speaker 2: Well, and you know what, it reminds me of. One
Speaker 2: of the reasons that California became the hot bed for
Speaker 2: all of the drug addicts is our lacks drug laws.
Speaker 2: But one of the other reasons is specifically medicale. When
Speaker 2: we expanded medicaid to anybody who is low in that
Speaker 2: steps on California soil qualifying for thirty days of rehab.
Speaker 2: You add all of these private rehab centers in Orange
Speaker 2: County and Malibu advertising on late night TV in Ohio saying, Hey,
Speaker 2: you want to kick your heroin habit by petting a
Speaker 2: horse in Malibu, We'll fly you out here, you get
Speaker 2: thirty days of rehab, and then they kick you out
Speaker 2: on the street.
Speaker 1: I really do believe they could cut the taxes in
Speaker 1: half if we got rid of the waste, fraud, and abiose.
Speaker 3: While there are plenty of legitimate reasons patients might prefer
Speaker 3: a certain medical center, the high traffic at the bart
Speaker 3: facility is raising questions.
Speaker 5: It's always that clinic. Why does it have to be
Speaker 5: that clinic.
Speaker 3: It doesn't make sense to you.
Speaker 5: No, Garcia doesn't.
Speaker 3: Work for medical and he's not a cab driver, But
Speaker 3: in his whistleblower complaint, he said he knows of two
Speaker 3: other passengers who have been taking those taxis roughly one
Speaker 3: hundred miles round trip per day to that very same clinic,
Speaker 3: even though they live within five miles of another treatment center.
Speaker 3: Of course, he's even followed them several times and recorded
Speaker 3: one of those trips, and his complaint to investigators, Garcia
Speaker 3: says those two passengers told him their cab driver was
Speaker 3: paying them to take the longer rides.
Speaker 4: He gives them toy it all the day.
Speaker 2: Each person seems kind of low, but if you're an
Speaker 2: unemployed drug addict, twenty dollars a day, that buys you
Speaker 2: some meth. Well, and it's not as if you have
Speaker 2: another taxi right there where you can go. Okay, this
Speaker 2: one's willing to give me twenty will you give me
Speaker 2: fifty or how about one hundred and negotiate that way.
Speaker 3: One of those passengers did confirm with us they do
Speaker 3: take those one hundred mile taxi trips, but denied accepting
Speaker 3: payments from his driver.
Speaker 2: We know you're getting the money. Otherwise, why would you
Speaker 2: do that? Who would voluntarily sit in the back of
Speaker 2: a cab for an hour? No.
Speaker 1: The only time I would ever consider doing that is
Speaker 1: for a dentist, because finding a good dentist is so difficult.
Speaker 1: If you have one the trust and you like, then
Speaker 1: I would be willing and I am willing to drive
Speaker 1: one hundred miles to go see that person. But for
Speaker 1: something like this, you just take whatever's closest to your house.
Speaker 2: Is this the revenge that the cabbies are putting on
Speaker 2: us because everyone prefers Lyft and uber and Weimo.
Speaker 1: You know, I was just thinking about that recently. How
Speaker 1: do they stay in business because it's so much easier
Speaker 1: and so much more convenient to do the ride share
Speaker 1: apps than it is to hail a taxi. I guess
Speaker 1: maybe in New York City the taxis have an advantage
Speaker 1: over the ubers and the lift, but not here. How
Speaker 1: do they stay in business. Well, it looks like this
Speaker 1: is the way.
Speaker 7: Medical is keeping these drivers employed.
Speaker 3: The other passenger never got back to us. Our undercover
Speaker 3: investigation found other patients traveling just as far, upwards of
Speaker 3: two hours in those taxis for a single appointment at
Speaker 3: that same clinic, even though their rides take them past
Speaker 3: other clinics that are much closer. We've also learned there
Speaker 3: are currently no restrictions on how far a patient can
Speaker 3: travel to get this kind of drug treatment.
Speaker 7: Of course there aren't.
Speaker 2: They're imagining some old lady that lives on top of
Speaker 2: a mountain into hatchepee that needs to get to her
Speaker 2: doctor appointment and didn't realize how easily this could be exploited, and.
Speaker 3: No caps on how much taxi companies can charge per trip.
Speaker 3: Here's one patient in their taxi after leaving the clinic
Speaker 3: at about six thirty in the morning. They're on Highway
Speaker 3: one oh one heading south. The cab eventually drives by
Speaker 3: all three of Santa Clara County's other drug treatment clinics
Speaker 3: before ultimately dropping off the passenger fifty miles away from
Speaker 3: the barred clinic.
Speaker 1: At this point, they just all assume that no one's
Speaker 1: minding the store, and they can get away with murder
Speaker 1: because they're not even trying to hide what they're doing.
Speaker 2: The biggest line item in the budget, next to education
Speaker 2: is healthcare, and part of the reason it is so
Speaker 2: expensive is there is so much of this crap going on.
Speaker 3: These treatment centers offer recovering drug users medication called methodone.
Speaker 7: I knew it.
Speaker 5: I knew called it.
Speaker 7: I knew it.
Speaker 2: By the way, when I was listening to this this morning,
Speaker 2: I cut it off four minutes in because I knew
Speaker 2: we were going with it, and I didn't want to
Speaker 2: get spoiled.
Speaker 7: But I knew it was methodone.
Speaker 5: You call it.
Speaker 3: These treatment centers offer recovering drug users medication called methodone
Speaker 3: to reduce cravings and lessen withdrawal symptoms. But patients need
Speaker 3: to get those meds in person just about every day,
Speaker 3: so the cost of those taxi rides adds up.
Speaker 2: So you are paying someone twenty dollars a day, every
Speaker 2: single day that this is their job. Their job is
Speaker 2: paid for by the California taxpayer, to go get their methodone.
Speaker 5: Unbelievable checker cab.
Speaker 3: We started logging just how far taxis were traveling to
Speaker 3: drop off passengers who were leaving the clinic. Over the
Speaker 3: course of twenty rods, the cabs averaged close to thirty
Speaker 3: miles just one way. A quarter of them traveled roughly
Speaker 3: fifty miles in one direction. The cab company charges a
Speaker 3: medical four bucks a mile.
Speaker 7: That adds up.
Speaker 1: How is it that Gavin Newsom hasn't figured this out.
Speaker 1: He's been governor for eight years and he is not
Speaker 1: minding the score. He does not care about doing his
Speaker 1: own job. He only cares about presenting himself to the
Speaker 1: nation as a cab date for president.
Speaker 2: The cabbies are pocketing two hundred dollars each way on
Speaker 2: these trips.
Speaker 3: So just one of those roundtrip fayars costs about four
Speaker 3: hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: There's a lot more to this story, and it is
Speaker 2: It is fascinating how easy it is to defraud Medical.
Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is
Speaker 1: telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two
Speaker 1: two two. If you'd like to email the show, you
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Speaker 7: Well, let's do that right now.
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Speaker 1: All right, let's go back to the latest scam that
Speaker 1: is costing California taxpayers dearly. This was uncovered by an
Speaker 1: incredible investigation from NBC Bay Area, where taxicab drivers are
Speaker 1: able to bill medical four dollars a mile for driving
Speaker 1: recovering Drug Act drug addicts to a methadone clinic that
Speaker 1: is fifty miles away. Let's continue from this incredible report
Speaker 1: from NBC in the Bay.
Speaker 3: All paid for by you. You're talking about thousands of
Speaker 3: dollars in transportation costs every month just for one person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you figure how many taxi drivers are going.
Speaker 4: Over Here's another cab coming in.
Speaker 3: We went under cover to find out what was that cab?
Speaker 7: We counted, what does this mean?
Speaker 2: The reporter had to act like your typical methodone patient.
Speaker 1: Well, having worked at news my entire life, there's plenty
Speaker 1: of people in this industry who don't have to act.
Speaker 3: We went under cover to find out what was that cab?
Speaker 3: We counted dozens of taxi drop offs each day over
Speaker 3: five days. Even before the door's open, there's usually a
Speaker 3: line of the taxis outside.
Speaker 2: Oh forget what the clinic is charging for their methadone
Speaker 2: treatment services. How much money is medical dolling out every
Speaker 2: single year just to fraudulent taxi rides?
Speaker 5: Sounds like a lot.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Most passengers spent less than ten minutes inside
Speaker 3: to take their medication and then headed right back out
Speaker 3: to their cab driver for another trip home.
Speaker 4: Number six to two.
Speaker 3: In a single day, we counted nearly one hundred round
Speaker 3: trip taxi rides at that same methodone.
Speaker 2: Clinic one hundred. So let's do a little math here.
Speaker 2: We're averaging four hundred dollars each way, So times that
Speaker 2: by two eight hundred dollars, then times that by one
Speaker 2: hundred eighty thousand dollars a day in taxi rides just
Speaker 2: for that one clinic.
Speaker 1: And think about this for a moment. How often are
Speaker 1: you asked to vote to raise your own taxes because
Speaker 1: the government says they don't have enough money to fight
Speaker 1: fires and to police your community and to make sure
Speaker 1: that the roads are paved. But they have money for this.
Speaker 2: If that clinic is opened three hundred and sixty five
Speaker 2: days a year, just in the taxi reimbursements, medical would
Speaker 2: be paying twenty nine million dollars.
Speaker 7: Great, and we just for one clinic.
Speaker 3: And we discovered nearly all of those taxis are part
Speaker 3: of this same company. Rainbow Checker and Yellow Cab of
Speaker 3: Silicon Valley all operate under Yellow Checker Cab, which has
Speaker 3: been providing transportation services for Santa Clara County medical patients
Speaker 3: for more than a decade. Larry Silva, this is their
Speaker 3: entire business model, because who's calling a taxi in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty six.
Speaker 1: Nope, And they all need business licenses from you know who,
Speaker 1: the state of California.
Speaker 3: Larry Silva, the president of Yellow Checker Cab, declined to
Speaker 3: talk with us on camera, but told us his company
Speaker 3: maintains a zero tolerance policy for fraud, waste or abuse.
Speaker 7: Not buying that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it sounds like they're really on top of that one.
Speaker 3: He also said his business has been unable to verify
Speaker 3: any allegations of kickbacks involving his roughly two hundred taxi drivers,
Speaker 3: who he says are independent contractors.
Speaker 4: That was a yellow cab.
Speaker 3: H We have spent the past year investigating the allegations.
Speaker 3: We reviewed hundreds of pages of public records, followed cabs
Speaker 3: to track the miles traveled, and spoke with taxi drivers
Speaker 3: and passengers. Most wouldn't talk with us on camera, but
Speaker 3: some did.
Speaker 4: I get ten bucks a name for my driver, and
Speaker 4: but other people get twenty.
Speaker 7: This why are you only getting ten?
Speaker 4: I get ten bucks a name for my driver, and
Speaker 4: but other people get twenty.
Speaker 2: Are they doing a voice altering thing or is just
Speaker 2: that how that person sounds.
Speaker 1: Well after a lifetime of drug abuse, maybe that's what
Speaker 1: you end up with.
Speaker 3: This patient told us she's homeless and relies on the money.
Speaker 7: Hurt way. That was a woman.
Speaker 5: Wait a minute, go back and play that again.
Speaker 4: Now I get ten bucks a name for my driver,
Speaker 4: and but other people get twenty.
Speaker 7: Let's assume they're altering the voice.
Speaker 5: Maybe it's an East German swimmer.
Speaker 3: This patient told us she's homeless and relies on the
Speaker 3: money her cab driver has been paying her in exchange
Speaker 3: for driving her to that Methodone clinic in Menlo Park
Speaker 3: nearly every day, even though it's forty five minutes away
Speaker 3: from where she's been sleeping.
Speaker 4: How do they pay you?
Speaker 2: Why don't you just pitch up a tent right next
Speaker 2: to the Methodone clinic. Well, I guess you need to
Speaker 2: be driving that far otherwise. This is her job. Her
Speaker 2: job is to go to the Methodone clinic.
Speaker 1: How many problems facing the state of California are caused
Speaker 1: by the homeless, because it's not just them living in
Speaker 1: the encampments creating blight in your community. Who are stealing
Speaker 1: bicycles and robbing pharmacies and those sorts of things. But
Speaker 1: look at all of these grifters, entire professions that exist
Speaker 1: off of dealing with the homeless, whether they be these
Speaker 1: phony bologne homeless services organizations, or the taxi cabs who
Speaker 1: are scamming us for money dedicated to the homeless. Think
Speaker 1: about the number of problems they create for all of
Speaker 1: us us, just that one small population of people.
Speaker 2: Well, and think about the cost when you're talking about
Speaker 2: all those different departments and services, and compare that to
Speaker 2: what they always say is the unbelievably expensive one hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty thousand dollars a year to put one of
Speaker 2: these people in prison.
Speaker 5: You know what, I'd rather spend the money on putting
Speaker 5: them in prison.
Speaker 2: And one of the reasons it is one hundred and
Speaker 2: thirty thousand dollars. If you're wondering why it's more expensive
Speaker 2: to go to prison than to Stanford, it's because we
Speaker 2: emptied out the prisons, but we didn't ever lower the
Speaker 2: contracts for the prison guards union, so that cost is
Speaker 2: being spread out over fewer prisoners.
Speaker 1: But think about it this way, though, If you can
Speaker 1: cap the cost at that to keep them in prison,
Speaker 1: then your neighborhoods look better, crime rate goes down. You
Speaker 1: don't have to spend the money on these phony blowning
Speaker 1: organizations and these cab drivers who are scamming you and
Speaker 1: everyone else who's getting their piece of the action.
Speaker 5: I bet you it costs us to.
Speaker 1: Allow them to live on the streets in the encampments
Speaker 1: that it would to put them in very expensive prisons.
Speaker 1: And there might be people that think it's inhumane to
Speaker 1: put these people in prison. Okay, idea number two.
Speaker 2: We take an uninhabited island, put a giant salt lick
Speaker 2: of meth in the middle of it, drop off provisions
Speaker 2: once a month, and they can fend for themselves.
Speaker 5: Can you imagine what Catalina would look like? Then?
Speaker 4: How do they pay you? In good question?
Speaker 3: She wasn't the only one who told us about getting
Speaker 3: paid by a cab driver twenty books.
Speaker 1: Okay, they're they're masking the voices. Yeah, women don't sound
Speaker 1: like that on their own.
Speaker 4: I was giving our twenty books a week.
Speaker 5: This patient told us he used to be twenty bucks
Speaker 5: a week.
Speaker 2: You know, this is the same thing with the paying
Speaker 2: the humbless to fill out the fake signatures on the
Speaker 2: proposition petitions, which we have an update on that later
Speaker 2: on in the show. It's really cheap to hire the
Speaker 2: bums for all this stuff.
Speaker 1: Wasn't there an episode of Seinfeld where Kramer was going
Speaker 1: to hire the bums to operate the rickshaws?
Speaker 5: That's right.
Speaker 3: This patient told us he used to get treatment at
Speaker 3: that same bart methodone clinic more than five years ago,
Speaker 3: and says even back then, the cash payments from Cabby's
Speaker 3: were happening, and we're well known among recovering drug.
Speaker 4: Users, like everybody. I don't know of anybody who's to
Speaker 4: start Like.
Speaker 2: Belfour, Everyone going to the methadone clinic is getting paid
Speaker 2: to go there by the cab driver and Randy.
Speaker 1: Let's get back to the details regarding the latest scheme.
Speaker 2: This is a scheme where medical dollars are going to
Speaker 2: taxi drivers to go incredibly long distances to take homeless
Speaker 2: people to methodone clinics, and they're paying the homeless people
Speaker 2: ten to twenty dollars in cash per trip.
Speaker 3: He tells us at the time, he was sleeping under
Speaker 3: a bridge in San Jose and was willing to take
Speaker 3: the forty minute cab rine six days a week to
Speaker 3: the methodone clinic.
Speaker 2: What do you think that cab smelled like, Oh, they
Speaker 2: might actually deserve the money, but.
Speaker 3: Says he doesn't think his driver did anything wrong the way.
Speaker 4: I looked at it, mcafter Ard, we're trying to hope
Speaker 4: he survived, you know what I mean. I never really
Speaker 4: looked at it. If than the rangemmitment.
Speaker 2: Uh, the cab driver was making four hundred dollars a
Speaker 2: day off of your addicted ass.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that person clearly is lacking in judgment to
Speaker 1: begin with.
Speaker 2: Plus, he said, for how effective is methodone and all
Speaker 2: these people that are on it are still homeless.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems like this is just one great, big
Speaker 1: money saint, doesn't it.
Speaker 3: Plus he says he enjoyed going to that location. Like
Speaker 3: many other patients we met, He told us he actually
Speaker 3: prefers the Menlo Park Methodone clinic because staff there is
Speaker 3: more lenient when patients relapse or fail mandatory drug tests.
Speaker 1: Your tax dollars, kids, your tax dollars.
Speaker 2: So this is a private clinic that they're getting money
Speaker 2: off of giving out their methodone to people that aren't
Speaker 2: even trying to be sober.
Speaker 3: Get them kicked out of other programs.
Speaker 4: That idea of where you meet the crime where they're at.
Speaker 2: That is the harm reduction ethos, meet them where they are.
Speaker 2: And let's just not forget how much medical dollars go
Speaker 2: to things like giving out free needles and meth pipes.
Speaker 4: So if you fail a drug test because you're justing
Speaker 4: positive for math or something else, they're.
Speaker 2: Okay, this guy was definitely on math. Even with the
Speaker 2: voice altering, He's talking at a mile a minute.
Speaker 5: You know what's funny.
Speaker 1: When I graduated from graduate school, I was I think
Speaker 1: one of two getting a master's degree in political science,
Speaker 1: and there were essentially less than ten for all the
Speaker 1: normal subjects that you've heard of, math, history, English, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. When they got to three different disciplines,
Speaker 1: they went on forever reading names and awarding degrees. One
Speaker 1: was education, of course, there's a lot of teachers out there.
Speaker 1: One was psychology, and one was public health. And I remember, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: I'm talking to you, Babs. I remember sitting there in
Speaker 1: the heat in my cap and gown, thinking I was
Speaker 1: going to burst into flames because it was so damn
Speaker 1: hot out there, thinking what the hell do all of
Speaker 1: these people do with degrees in public health? Not just
Speaker 1: bachelor's degrees, because this was a graduate school, master's degrees
Speaker 1: in public health? What do you do with a master's
Speaker 1: degree in public health? But when you're aware of all
Speaker 1: of these scams that exist where millions, if not billions
Speaker 1: of dollars are being thrown around, all you have to
Speaker 1: do is attach yourself with your list of degrees to
Speaker 1: one of these phony bologny organizations, and man, you hit
Speaker 1: the jackpot, and then everyone kisses your ass as if
Speaker 1: you're doing something altruistic.
Speaker 4: The evidence is like crystal clear on that. So if
Speaker 4: you fail a drug test because you're testing positive for
Speaker 4: math or something else, they're not going to cut your
Speaker 4: doughs or anything crazy like that.
Speaker 2: So you can go get your method DOWNE which is
Speaker 2: supposed to deal with your opiate addiction, while you're still
Speaker 2: high on math, and the money.
Speaker 1: That the cab drivers are giving you back in kickbacks
Speaker 1: is probably going to buy more math.
Speaker 3: The bar clinic told us it uses an evidence based
Speaker 3: model of care to reduce overdose risk, which complies with
Speaker 3: federal and state requirements. As for those alleged payments from
Speaker 3: cab drivers, the clinic says it's now investigating and denied
Speaker 3: any involvement.
Speaker 6: It is worrisome.
Speaker 3: Amanda Brewster is a professor at the UC Berkeley School
Speaker 3: of Public Health. She specialized it what do you think
Speaker 3: that Morlman's life?
Speaker 5: I can only imagine.
Speaker 7: No, thank you, just a whole bunch of little Barbara Ferrares.
Speaker 3: She specializes in how medical systems use non medical services
Speaker 3: like free transportation to improve outcomes for patients. If taxpayers
Speaker 3: are getting stuck with the bill, Why not limit how
Speaker 3: far patients can travel, especially if there are comparable facilities
Speaker 3: closer to them.
Speaker 6: When we're thinking about putting up hurdles to people accessing care,
Speaker 6: we want to do the math to make sure that
Speaker 6: we're not actually increasing the likelihood that people are going
Speaker 6: to need to use the hospital later on and then
Speaker 6: you end up with that pool of money.
Speaker 2: Is it just something that if you're a public health director,
Speaker 2: every other word is and you know.
Speaker 5: Think about what she's saying here.
Speaker 1: She's saying that allowing the fraud to continue and the
Speaker 1: drug abuse to continue is following the science.
Speaker 6: Having to go to pay for really expensive services.
Speaker 3: Santa Clara County tells US it's launched its own government
Speaker 3: investigation into the allegations, but says it's legally obligated to
Speaker 3: approve care for patients at the Bart Clinic no matter
Speaker 3: the distance.
Speaker 1: They are never going to do anything about this, never well,
Speaker 1: and this is the thing.
Speaker 2: It's you can't even really call it fraud because what
Speaker 2: they're doing is legal.
Speaker 1: It's not only legal, it is allowed or it is
Speaker 1: encouraged by those with advanced degrees in the subject.
Speaker 5: They think this is a good thing.
Speaker 3: A spokesperson telling us patients always have the right to
Speaker 3: choose where they receive treatment, regardless of cost or convenience.
Speaker 3: While the county is in charge of approving treatment for
Speaker 3: medical patients, it's actually another public agency, the Santa Clara
Speaker 3: Family Health Plan, that's responsible for paying transportation costs to
Speaker 3: get to those medical appointments. The health plan wouldn't tell
Speaker 3: us exactly how much it's paid Yellow Checker Cab for
Speaker 3: those trips to the Bark methadone clinic, but public records
Speaker 3: we obtained show more than eighty thousand of those rides
Speaker 3: have been paid out by medical just within the last
Speaker 3: few years.
Speaker 5: And these people don't regard it as fraud.
Speaker 3: So that means the total cost is likely in the millions.
Speaker 3: That one was only here for five minutes. Now, as
Speaker 3: a result of our reporting, the Santa Clara Family Health
Speaker 3: Plan has opened an investigation, saying it's deeply troubled to
Speaker 3: hear of alleged kickbacks and pledged to take every possible
Speaker 3: action to prevent the misuse of taxpayer dollars. In fact,
Speaker 3: the agency.
Speaker 2: Us Yeah, the only thing that apparently is against the
Speaker 2: law here is paying the homeless to take the cabs,
Speaker 2: but they can legally take If the homeless want to
Speaker 2: go to a clinic that's three hundred miles away, they
Speaker 2: can go to a clinic three hundred miles away, and
Speaker 2: the cab he can bill four dollars a mile for it.
Speaker 1: How about this, Why doesn't Trump come in and just
Speaker 1: arrest all the bums because none of them are paying
Speaker 1: taxes on any of these kickbacks, that's technically tax fraud.
Speaker 5: That's their income.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's what needs to happen, all right, Just another
Speaker 1: example of California taxpayers being fleeceed by crooks and California
Speaker 1: public officials allowing it to happen knowingly