Local worker awarded for work in fraud cases

By Susan Gibbs, Record Reporter
Published: August 14, 2008

When the Virginia Office of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (the Unit) received an award on May 12 for being among the best in the nation, there was a trickle-down effect. Greene County Social Worker Jean Pearson was invited to Richmond to participate in the Unit’s Law Enforcement Recognition Program, where she received an award of her own.
Pearson works with the Greene County Department of Social Services’ (DSS’s) Services to Adults in Virginia and Adult Protective Services in Virginia programs. She was recognized for her efforts to eliminate Medicaid fraud.
While that means Pearson has a new plaque to hang on her wall, it also means that “we are able to increase staff in the state to grow the program,“ Pearson says.
Awards made to both McDonnell and Pearson for work done during the fiscal year that ended last September 30.
Federal officials say that during Fiscal year 2007 Virginia’s Medicaid fraud unit recovered more than $650 million - the most ever recovered by a state Unit.
Greene’s DSS Director James Howard says that as a result of Pearson’s efforts, Greene’s “is the only local DSS office in the state to receive this award for participation in a successful Medicaid fraud investigation.“
DSS, in compliance with its responsibility to protect client confidentiality, cannot name or give specifics of the case Pearson worked to gain the recognition she did.
However, Howard says the case involved “an investigation of the misuse of an elderly person’s funds and resources.“
And Pearson said that both the State DSS and the Virginia Guardianship Association have been “looking at the misuse of Powers of Attorney and proposed legislation to make those powers more accountable.“
The Virginia Guardianship Association is an organization whose Board of Directors consists of professionals in fields related to aging. According to its website, located at http://www.vgavirginia.org, its mission is “to provide for the exchange of ideas, education, and communication among groups and individuals in providing or furthering guardianship services or alternative protective services to vulnerable persons who are elderly, who have mental illness, who have a developmental disability, or who are otherwise at risk.“
Pearson notes that the victims of Medicaid fraud are often old, disabled or frail, and “unable to self-advocate,“ and mentions how easily one can extort given general power of attorney.
General Power of attorney is a written document signed by one person giving another the power to act in conducting the signer’s business. That power includes the signing of papers, checks, title documents, contracts, handling bank accounts and other activities in the name of the person granting the power.
“Last year,“ says Pearson, “we received a grant for Planning District 10 (which serves Greene, as well as the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Louisa and Nelson and the City of Charlottesville) to hire full-time public guardians.“
Those guardians, Pearson explains, are court-appointed if a person is financially indigent. “Slots were filled the first year in operation, with a waiting list.“
Pearson further explains that unlike persons holding general powers of attorney, court-appointed guardians are subject to annual audits and “can be held accountable.“ Although, she adds, “Courts are beginning to hold people with power of attorney accountable for what they do.“
Pearson points out Medicaid fraud can involve a person “taking Medicaid-funded items, including checks.“ She adds that “one case was awarded $250,000 of exploited funds,“ and urges any who suspect the abuse, neglect or exploitation of adults aged 60 or over to call the Adult Protective Services hotline at (888) 83ADULT.
The goal of Adult Protective Services is to protect a vulnerable adult’s life, health, and property without a loss of liberty.
“Anyone can call anytime, anonymously, and they don’t have to have proof; they only need to have suspicion of abuse, neglect or exploitation,“ Pearson says. 
If a person’s money is gone due to mismanagement is gone, we can “pick up where the exploitation began and go forward,“ Pearson says.
Pearson says she would not have received the award without the assistance of the Greene County Sheriff’s office and connections with outside law enforcement agencies.
But Howard says Pearson “is a bulldog. She is dedicated and persistent. She will see an issue through to the end. In this case it was Medicaid fraud. In another it might be the abuse and neglect of a disabled individual.“