Drug clinics bilking taxpayers

Click here to read CNN report on fraud linked to California's drug rehab program. Here are some of the highlights:

• Weak, uncoordinated oversight by state and county officials has allowed fraud to flourish in California's drug and alcohol rehabilitation program
• State officials have approved clinic operators who are felons and could be barred under state law
• Even when regulators catch troubled clinics in deceptive practices, they still give them rising sums of money
• State officials in charge of Medicaid have known about the problem for years

Drug Medi-Cal paid out $94 million in the past two fiscal years to 56 clinics in Southern California that have shown signs of deception or questionable billing practices, representing half of all public funding to the program, CIR and CNN found. Over the past six years, more than half a billion dollars have poured into the program statewide.