The Quote of the Year Award goes to...

This BTW is a continuation of this post from yesterday...

And the winner is:

Susan from My Life In A Foster Care Space Warp, who said...

"No one is making any money on this case. Between the services for mom and the medical care and therapies every one of her kids are receiving and will continue to receive for many years, the state and county will be paying for this family for a very long time."

Then goes on to ask...

"I'm not being flippant, I just really don't understand how anyone thinks this is a money-making venture."

To which I replied... (BTW, I said nothing about baby selling)...

I will try to answer your question as best and as politely I can, as to how this is a money making venture.

You said: "No one is making any money on this case. Between the services for mom and the medical care and therapies every one of her kids are receiving and will continue to receive for many years, the state and county will be paying for this family for a very long time."

So how is it possible that the state and county will be paying, but nobody will be making any money? Do you know how much the state or county is paying? How much of it is paid for by the feds? What does it actually cost the state or county or feds to provide all of these services to the family and the child? How much for a child who is not special needs? How much more for a child who is special needs? If you added it all up, including court costs, lawyers, shrinks, doctors, foster parents, day care, what have you, what does it cost for a month? But nobody's getting a cut of that?

Here is a video on YouTube that spells it out pretty clearly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNTa7BksGkg

What you have described in your last two posts is what can easily be pointed out as a revenue maximizing child welfare fraud scheme. And foster parents are just as much victims of these scams as are the families. And sooner or later these kids are probably going to end up in group homes which will also be paid for.

The goal is to keep mother and the kids in the system for as long as possible and to drag these kinds of cases out for as long as possible. By keeping the kids in the system for as long as possible, there are many who benefit.

Here's how...

All of these services which you speak of are provided by professionals who are able to bill Medicaid, the county, whatever. By dragging these cases out or rather recommending that they continue to provide such services, these service providers are able to keep on billing and the state, feds, county, etc will keep on paying. By keeping the kids in the system, job security is provided. It's good for the economy.

Lawyers benefit from dragging these things out, they are paid by the hour or accept a flat rate for a month and contrary to popular belief, are rarely doing it pro-bono but may very well be accepting lower rates. Still a case that lasts years can be quite lucrative to the point of supporting their business, they do not make out off of speedy resolutions, therefore these kinds of cases simply don't end quickly.

The shrinks, doctors, and any other service providers are being paid for as well. There have been cases where Psychiatrists have been caught prescribing meds to foster children unnecessarily, paid for by medicaid, then monitoring the kids and selling the info back to the drug companies for research purposes in exchange for kickbacks. Not to mention, shrinks are constantly recommending that their services continue, or recommending other services in addition to the ones already being provided.

Some services are necessary, some are not, all are provided one way or another. All are paid for in some way or another. Some of the money for the services providers is provided by grants and donations from local church groups or businesses, but most comes straight from Medicaid, which is even paying for services that are not provided as there is so much of it going on that they can't keep track.

It is my understanding that the Department of Justice is beginning to take an interest in such fraud schemes because of Health Care Reform, and the need to bring down some of these costs.