Bhutanese refugee collects $82,000 taxpayer-funded salary for no-show home health 'work' in PA: report

Ram Kuma Chhetri, who lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, appeared to be working 11 hours a day, seven days a week, under the state’s Medicaid home program. However, months of footage obtained by Luke Rosiak at The Daily Wire showed Chhetri arriving at a nearby home around 6 pm and 5 pm, remaining in his vehicle for just two or three minutes before leaving.

Pennsylvania lets eligible elderly residents direct Medicaid-funded payments to relatives or friends who help with everyday tasks. Under the system, caregivers can clock in and out on their phone at the client's residence.

This sort of fraud is reportedly rampant in the state. In August, the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested a drug trafficker who asked to be removed from handcuffs to clock out of his home health shift he was supposedly working. When the agents noted that it was illegal, he replied, “Everyone is doing this. If this is a problem, you’ll have to arrest the whole city.”

In Chhetri’s case, the home he visited raised questions about the need for taxpayer-funded assistance. It was one of the most expensive real estate transactions in the area the month it was sold, and residents appeared to drive a Range Rover and a custom-painted Tesla Cybertruck.

“Scenes like this play out every day in the 33 states whose Medicaid programs bill the federal government for ‘personal services’ – the technical term for a program that, unlike traditional ‘home health’ provided by nurses, enables payments to family members with no medical training but plenty of conflict of interest,” the outlet reported. “Yet it is especially common in the community of Bhutanese refugees centered in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Efforts to make the system harder to game have been met with resistance from those profiting on it, who invoke arguments about privacy or freedom. One Ohio lawmaker proposed ‘breadcrumb’ tracking, which would report the GPS location of aides throughout a shift. But it was stripped from the fraud bill that secured bipartisan passage.”

“Even had the provision passed, home care aides have no shortage of workarounds. One Bhutanese immigrant in Harrisburg told me that many times, ‘The caregiver leaves one phone at home and takes another phone with them. Someone who stayed at the home simply clocks in and out for them on the app. They still get paid while doing absolutely nothing.’ If the aide lives with the client, GPS fails off the bat,” the outlet added.

Pennsylvania has paid an average of $20.63 per hour in recent years, with the federal and state government collectively covering roughly $82,600 annually for a caregiver working 77 hours per week. Home care companies typically keep about a quarter of the hourly reimbursement, excluding overtime.

Pennsylvania also defines the elderly population for the program as beginning at the age of 60. Some families seek to enroll a family member even if they do not need substantial care.

Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro set a caregiver pay increase in motion over the summer, which will likely exacerbate the issue.