drew joins me now, with toby douglas, director of the california department of health care services. appreciate you being with us. i want to start with this. in an editorial today, it s not enough to stop payments to problem clinics as the state appears to be doing now. who at state government or at the county level was responsible for years of lax oversight? can you answer that question? who was responsible for years of lax oversight? anderson, first, thank you for having me on tonight. i can t talk about the past. what i can why not? what i want to tell you is that this past year, the governor and the legislature transferred authority of this program to the department of health care services. once we received authority, and i as the director was accountable, we started a top-to-bottom review of this program. we initiated audits, put field investigators on the ground. what we found so far is appalling. we have found fraud and we have
former drug medi-cal supervisor says she complained to the state for years about all the obvious fraud. we found billing records for people in jail, one person dead, people who said they didn t need this kind of treatment. uh-huh. reporter: clinics closed on a certain day, billing for that certain day. you hi. reporter: none of this surprises you? not at all. we found all of those things. reporter: for more than a month, cnn has been asking for an explanation from the state of california, and for more than a month, we ve gotten nowhere. can i just ask you from you, why? that wasn t my decision. reporter: state health officials in one sacramento building after another refused to be questioned, including toby douglas, who oversees drug medi-cal. will you provide a response as
no, these investigations continue will continue on and we will work with the department of justice until we take all these providers so why is it okay to talk now, even though the investigation is still going on, but over the last many weeks that drew has tried to get an interview, you wouldn t talk because of an ongoing investigation? now you can talk even though there s an ongoing investigation? there is an ongoing investigation. what i want to make sure that everyone knows is that i m here, i m accountable and i am going to fix this program. all right. we ll continue to follow it, mr. douglas. drew, anything else? no. i ll look forward to the follow ups, mr. douglas, and hopefully we can see where the investigations bear fruit and find out if the felons running the clinics will be weeded out and the people falsely bill
month, we ve gotten nowhere. can i just ask you from you, why? that wasn t my decision. reporter: state health officials in one sacramento building after another refused to be questioned, including toby douglas, who oversees drug medi-cal. will you provide a response as to why this widespread fraud is allowed to continue? finally, after weeks of calling the state s secretary of health and human services, diana duley, and getting no for an answer, we decided to ask for a response in person. secretary yes. reporter: drew griffin with cnn. we ve been trying to reach you and talk to you about the widespread fraud that s in the medi-cal drug rehab business but we ve told neither you or anybody the state of california will talk to us. the secretary at first refused to speak. secretary, do you know alex ferdnand, a convicted felon, who
been complaint registered with the department about him? he s convicted of a major insurance fraud in the state of texas, but for somehow was able to get certified and has been billing him. is there anyone in the state of california concerned about this fraud? then finally answered a question. the state of california takes fraud very seriously and there are many investigations that are under way. the allegations, all allegations are given full and fair consideration and you ve caught me running because i am late for a meeting that i m chairing. reporter: i wonder if you would do one thing and ask toby douglas to sit down and talk to us. if you want to give us a little bit of time reporter: we ve been giving you about a month. we have a budget we are just completing and we have many priorities. information and answers have been provided. we have a very