California is cracking down on graft in the state’s system of medical care for injured workers with two bills recently signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Christina Jewett
Reporter
Christina Jewett is a reporter for Reveal, covering labor and workplace issues with a focus on the workers' compensation system. With reporting partner Will Evans and CNN, she exposed widespread fraud and failed government oversight of California’s network of addiction treatment centers for the poor. The stories led to the defunding of more than 200 rehab clinics and changes in state law. The Emmy-nominated series won the 2013 broadcast award from Investigative Reporters and Editors. Jewett – as part of California Watch, a project of The Center for Investigative Reporting – won the 2011 George Polk Award for medical reporting with Lance Williams and Stephen K. Doig. The series exposed outsized rates of rare but lucrative medical conditions at a rapidly growing hospital chain and spurred a federal investigation. She was also a Livingston Award finalist in 2010. Previously, Jewett worked at ProPublica and The Sacramento Bee, where a story she broke about contracting malfeasance led to arrests and convictions. She and a colleague also chronicled jail abuse and medical mistreatment, spurring countywide policy reforms. Those stories were honored with awards from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Jewett is based in Sacramento, California.
Posted inWorked Over, Workers’ Rights
‘I was greedy and stupid’: Workers’ comp attorney admits to bribes
Sean E. O’Keefe was a well-known attorney for injured workers in San Diego. But he didn’t get success the old-fashioned way – he paid cash for the bulk of the clients who walked through his door.
Posted inWorked Over, Workers’ Rights
California bill could protect injured workers from convicted providers
California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would bar medical providers who’ve been convicted of felonies from treating injured workers.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Guns, Law Enforcement
New California law could keep guns away from people like Omar Mateen
The gun violence restraining order law allows law enforcement officers or family members to ask a judge to approve gun restrictions.
Posted inAccountability, Health Care, Health Care Scams
Lawmakers, labor chief seek reviews of California workers’ comp fraud
A California lawmaker says “something needs to be done” about widespread medical fraud in the state’s workers’ compensation system and has called on a state commission to launch an in-depth review.
Posted inHealth Care, Health Care Scams
Fraud accusations grow in California’s embattled workers’ comp system
Southern California prosecutors have filed a new round of charges against medical providers who care for the state’s injured workers, raising further questions about state oversight of the program that covers 15 million people.
Posted inHealth Care
Why the DOJ is backing a whistleblower’s claims of medical fraud
By joining a False Claims Act lawsuit, the Justice Department brings additional legal firepower and evidence from an independent probe that validates aspects of the whistleblower’s case.
Posted inAccountability, Health Care, Health Care Scams
With workers’ compensation fraud comes soaring insurance costs
Employers are paying the price for what prosecutors throughout California describe as more than $1 billion in medical fraud plaguing the state system.
Posted inHealth Care, Health Care Scams
Holes in oversight leave California workers’ comp vulnerable to fraud
In many ways, scamming the health system meant to heal California’s injured workers is just too easy. Case documents reveal gaping holes in the state’s strategy to prevent fraud.
Posted inHealth Care, Health Care Scams
Profiteering masquerades as medical care for injured California workers
A review of thousands of criminal court records shows a workers’ compensation system in which pay-to-play schemes trump patient care, particularly in unregulated treatments rejected by insurers and disputed in obscure courts.