EDD freezes 345,000 disability accounts. That hurts people in need, Fresno legislator says [The Fresno Bee]

Jan. 13—A Fresno elected official sounded the alarm on Thursday, saying an unknown number of people with legitimate disability claims filed with the state could be facing roadblocks from the Employment Development Department.

The EDD is working to stop a scheme involving suspected organized crime that filed false disability insurance claims and attempted to pass themselves off as doctors or other health providers to fraudulently collect on the claims, according to officials.

The EDD investigation has meant suspending accounts for 345,000 claims associated with suspicious activity, the agency said Thursday. The suspended account activity is connected to about 27,000 "suspicious medical provider registrants" associated with those claims.

The agency reported that while the majority of the activity was probably an effort at fraud, EDD was joining state regulators and medical provider organizations in the verification process so that any legitimate claims can be cleared.

Assemblymember Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, said Thursday that EDD is bungling its response to the issue and it's hurting people with legitimate needs and those trying to help.

"EDD should be able to know and understand that these are legitimate claims," he said. "They processed them before. They have records of these individuals. This is not anything new."

Patterson said his office has also tried to intervene for constituents but EDD will not accept help.

Fresno resident Bailey Graham said she was on leave related to her pregnancy and complications that led her to file for benefits in June. Her payments stopped in November and she said she couldn't get answers from EDD officials.

"EDD told me their hands are tied and there's no telling when I'm going to get my money," she said.

Graham said she has been able to return to work but she is owed more than $6,000.

Patterson said Graham's case is not unusual.

"The reason that we want to bring this to the public's attention is that it's growing and it's expanding, and the solution is more wait, more heartache by people who are down to their last dollar," he said.

The scam

The scammers also try to impersonate government agencies in an effort to fool people into clicking fake links, EDD found.

The agency noted purported medical providers have to complete an identity verification using the ID.me system to certify a disability claim.

"These personalized requests for medical provider verification through ID.me only come from an official EDD email address ending in @edd.ca.gov," the agency said in a statement. "Medical providers who receive emails with information about how to verify identity through ID.me should carefully confirm the sender's @edd.ca.gov email address."

Eligible workers no longer able to work and who have lost pay due to illness, injury or pregnancy can apply for disability insurance benefits.

EDD last month reported evidence of fraud that included a recent increase in new online medical or health provider account EDD registrations and an increase in disability insurance claims.

EDD has been tackling other fraud involving the unemployment program that it manages.

An estimated $20 billion has been paid in fraudulent claims, and organized crime is suspected to be behind much of the activity that relied on vulnerability in the federally-funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.

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