We do it regularly. Odonnell but as youll hear tonight, genetic science has moved even further into the future. This woman believes the technology she used will stop the disease from stalking her family. You have said, the Breast Cancer stops with me. Yes. Its not just my children its their children and my grandchildren and great grandchildren, forever and for all time. Kroft steve carell has been one of hollywoods most recognizable comedy stars for nearly a decade now, both on television and in the movies. But no one recognized carell in his critically acclaimed portrayal of billionaire john e. Dupont in the truecrime film foxcatcher. Youre one of the most successful, highest paid actors in hollywood. Why would you want to take the chance . Well, when you put it that way, it was really an ill conceived idea. laughter im steve kroft. Im lesley stahl. Im morley safer. Im bill whitaker. Im norah odonnell. Im scott pelley. Those stories tonight on 60 minutes. Song Rachel Platten fight song two million, four hundred thirtyfour thousand three hundred eleven people in this city. And only one me. Ill take those odds. Be unstoppable. The allnew 2015 ford edge. Pelley it was Benjamin Franklin who wrote, nothing can be said to be certain but death and taxes. Turns out, with taxes, that may be true, but not so much with death. In america, the job of ultimately accounting for who is dead or alive belongs to the Social Security administration which compiles something called the death master file. There are about 86 million names on this National List of the deceased. And its deadly Serious Business because when youre added to the file, that means that banks, the i. R. S. , medicare, Law Enforcement and the like scratch you out of existence. But we found out that the death master file is often fatally flawed. As we first reported in march, a lot of people who pass on dont get on the list, which costs taxpayers billions of dollars in fraudulent payments to people standing in for the departed. And then, there are those who are on the death master file who are very surprised to hear that theyre dead. How many of you have been declared dead by the federal government . All of you. Youre looking pretty well to me. This would be a seeance, except these are living, breathing americans that we conjured up from around the country, all declared dead by the Social Security administration. Don pilger passed away when he tried to report the death of his wife. This is a form from the Social Security administration. The idea was you were going to call this number and essentially report that your wife had passed. Don pilger exactly. And thats what i did on the following monday. Eight days later, i went to access my bank account and it was. They kept saying, invalid pin. So i went to the bank and i give the lady the problem i was having. She typed my numbers into the computer and she grabbed my hand, she says, mr. Pilger, i dont believe this. They reported you deceased and not your wife. Pelley kristina paces life was cut short at an early age. Kristina pace i was in college, i walked into the bank to open up an account, and same thing. We cant help you. Well, why . Youre coming up as deceased. You need to go to Social Security office. And i did. But just randomly, years later it would come up. Id want to get a car or something. Oh, no. Oh, let me guess. Im dead . So. Pelley Betty Denault was summoned to her Social Security office where the computer read like an epitaph. Betty denault and she pointed on the screen up in the corner and it said, d. O. D. And i said, what does d. O. D. Mean . And she said, date of death. And i said, well, how did you come up with this . And she said, all it takes is somebody to input on the computer the wrong numbers. And it just makes a big difference, of course. Pelley most people never find out how it happens, but when the federal computer says youre dead, you might as well be. The terrible news is relayed by the government to banks and credit agencies. Judy rivers told us she had 80,000 in her accounts, but when she tried to use a bank card at a store, they assumed she was an identity thief. You couldnt get access to your bank accounts. You couldnt get a credit card. How did you live . Judy rivers well, for a time, i lived in my car. And i couldnt get an apartment. I had my debit cards, which were, of course, no good. I used one without knowing the consequences, and was actually taken to jail and questioned because they thought i was an identity thief. Pelley you ended up arrested . Ended up living in your car because of all of this. Rivers for six months. Pelley you had been eliminated from the human race. Rivers cyber ghost. Pelley cyber ghost. Pilger cyber ghost. Pelley judy rivers now haunts a borrowed camper in alabama, and while her finances were ruined, she found that the government makes a tidy profit selling the death master file to credit agencies. So, word of her death was nearly immortal in dozens of databases, and it came back again and again. She protested to a Credit Agency called chexsystems for what seemed like an eternity. Rivers finally, chexsystems responded to me and told me to send my information in and they would consider it, after i had sent it to them over 20 times. Pelley they would consider whether you were still alive. Rivers correct. Pelley we looked in the Alabama Vital Records Office for rivers death notice, but its not there. No one seems to know how she got in the federal death master file. God may judge the quick and the dead, but its the states that collect the data. They pass it along to Social Security, and there is plenty of room for error. Record bureaus get death notices from doctors, hospitals, funeral homes, or families, and every state has its own rules. Perhaps because the dead dont vote, many of the states dont spend much keeping tabs on them. This is the state of alabama vital records vault. It is a place so secure that you need a key and a fingerprint to get inside. But once in here, the Technology Becomes pretty 19th century. These are death certificates from 1912, for example. All in all, there are 17 million paper records in here. Now, the state of alabama is moving toward an electronic system, and its about 60 of the way there. But theres so little funding around the country for that kind of transition that there are about a dozen states in america that do not have a statewide Electronic Filing system for death records. How accurate is the death master file . Patrick ocarroll i guess, the best way to say it is as accurate as it can be. Pelley Patrick Ocarroll is the Social Security administrations Inspector General. His Office Investigates how the death master file is used and abused. Ocarroll right now, the death master file has in it about 86 million records in it and it gets about two million records every year from the states. And were probably, as with everything else, as strong as the weakest link, in terms that some states are reporting electronically, have very good data. And then with other states, its done on a more haphazard level. So again, theres going to be some falling through the cracks there. Pelley but ocarroll told us that live people falling through the cracks isnt what keeps him up at night. The much more costly problem is in the millions of americans who do die and are not recorded. Your office found that Social Security had no death data for six and a half Million People over the age of 111. Do you really believe that there are six and a half Million People over the age of 111 in this country . Ocarroll no, and in fact, thats why we did the audit on it. What we were finding is that people that were over 112 years of age were opening up bank accounts, and it got us suspicious. And we found that 6. 5 million was not recorded as being deceased in ssas records. Pelley how many people are over the age of 111 in this country . Ocarroll im thinking ten. Pelley most federal agencies depend on the death master file, so if a death isnt listed federal payments just keep coming. We wondered what that would add up to during the course of a year, but it turns out, no one in the federal government is keeping an overall count. The best we could come up with was a few reports from individual agencies. For example, the department of agriculture paid farm subsidies and Disaster Assistance to more than 170,000 dead people over six years. That came to 1. 1 billion. The office of Personnel Management paid dead federal retirees a little over a billion. And in 2010 alone, the i. R. S. Paid more than 400 million in refunds to the dead. Social security doesnt know how many retirement and disability checks are cashed by the relatives of the dead, like Sandra Kimbro. Sandra kimbro im a. A wife, a mother, a grandmother, and now a felon. Pelley like a lot of people, she took in her aging, ill mother, and had a joint bank account with her. When her mother died, the disability benefits kept coming. When did she die . Kimbro she died. 1984. Pelley when she died, did you report her death to Social Security . Kimbro i did not. Pelley why not . Kimbro i thought perhaps it would have been taken care of by the funeral director at some point. Pelley were you surprised that these benefits kept coming to you . Kimbro no, not initially because i had had a conversation with my mom prior to her death that i would be entitled to the benefits. So i had just assumed and went along with that, thinking that i was entitled. Pelley and what did it come to . Kimbro over a 30year period, 160,000. Pelley though she took the checks for three decades otherwise, Sandra Kimbro is no ones idea of a thief. She and her husband had good fulltime jobs through retirement, a solid middle class life, and raised two children. But then came an unexpected call from Social Security. The investigator from Social Security mustve asked where your mother was . Kimbro oh, well, i explained to him immediately. I didnt try to say that she was alive. I said that she was deceased. Pelley Social Security suspected as much because it is using a clever new tool. Ocarroll so, we go to medicare and see if anybody hasnt been to medicare for three years. And if they havent been, we then, you know, try to go out and make a phone call to them, see if theyre, you know, still here. Also, we look at people that reach 100 years of age, and try to reach out and see if theyre, you know, doing well. Pelley Sandra Kimbros mother would have been 93 and hadnt used medicare in 30 years. Kimbro was charged with theft, pled guilty, and is now looking at at least a year in prison. She spoke with us, she said, to warn others. Kimbro ive spent 66 years no criminal history. Havent done nothing wrong lived a good life, did everything i was supposed to do, be a lawabiding citizen, and succumbed to this human error. And this is where i am. And obviously, felon is not compatible with the other three things that i said, but it is my reality. Pelley Inspector GeneralPatrick Ocarroll says that Social Security is managing about 150 convictions a year, a fraction of the total. But it adds up to about 55 million in fraud. Ocarroll what were trying to do is get the word out there, is, if you do take it and youre not supposed to do it, were going to find you, were going to arrest you, and were going to get the money back. Pelley over the last decade, ocarroll has made 70 recommendations to Social Security to reform the death master file. But he says theres little sense of urgency. Is part of the problem here that, in washington, 50 million or 100 million a year just isnt a very big number . Ocarroll its interesting you bring that up, because i deal in very big numbers. About 2 billion go out every day. So, when you start taking a look at percentages of 2 billion thats what to you, me, to a general taxpayer is going to be extremely large amounts of money really, percentagewise, is small compared to whats going out every day. Pelley as for the living whove been declared dead, Social Security told us we work very hard to correct errors when we learn of them. The agency said that its error rate is only one third of 1 . But that still adds up to about 9,000 americans killed off by the government each year. For them, it can be a long road to resurrection. It took judy rivers five years. And today, she carries a few credit cards, and something else. You carry a letter around with you. Rivers all the time. Pelley . Everywhere you go. What does it say . Rivers its from the Social Security office, and i have it updated once a month. And it says that. Who i am what my Social Security number is, that i have been mistakenly declared as deceased in the past, and that that is not correct, and im alive and well, or at least alive. Pelley and you have that updated every month . Rivers every month. Pelley why . Rivers because when you get to about three months, people look at the date and say, well, this is old. You know, you couldve died since then. Pelley after we first broadcast this story, senators ron johnson and tom carper introduced a bill to ensure that improper payments to the dead stop, and the living stay off the death master file. As for Sandra Kimbro, a federal judge has sentenced her to six months in prison. Cbs money watch update sponsored by lincoln financial calling all chief life officers. Glor good evening. Greeks decisively voted no in a rushed referendum, perhaps setting up a euro zone exit. Chinas stock market is plunging and tomorrow most of the famed futures trading tips in new york and chicago will close for good. Im jeff glor, cbs news. Yeast infections in women and men, low blood sugar, kidney problems, and increased bad cholesterol. Common side effects include urinary Tract Infections changes in urination and runny nose. Do the walk of life yeah, you do the walk of life need to lower your blood sugar . Ask your doctor about farxiga. And visit our website to learn how you may be able to get every month free. Odonnell there are few fields of medicine that are having a bigger impact on how we treat disease than genetics. As we reported in october, the science of genetics has gotten so sophisticated so quickly that it can be used to not only treat serious diseases, but prevent thousands of them well before pregnancy even begins. Diseases that have stalked families for generations, like Breast Cancer, are being literally stopped in their tracks. Scientists can do that by creating and testing embryos in a lab, then implanting into a mothers womb only the ones which appear healthy. While the whole field is loaded with controversy, those who are worried about passing on defective and potentially dangerous genes see the opportunity to breed out disease. Did you ever envision that you would have the capability you have today . Mark hughes no, but thats the fun of science, its constantly surprising you. Odonnell dr. Mark hughes is one of the scientists leading the way in a rapidly growing field known as reproductive genetics. He pioneered a technique called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or p. G. D. Hughes this ones got a minustwo. Odonnell . An embryo screening procedure that can identify deadly gene mutations and alter a childs genetic destiny. Hughes we all throw genetic dice when we have children, but when you know the dice are loaded and that theres a really reasonable chance that your baby will have an incurable, dreadful condition, youre looking for an alternative. Odonnell dr. Hughes helped develop p. G. D. Two decades ago to screen embryos for one disease, cystic fibrosis. Today, because of advances in the mapping of the human genome, he says it can be used to root out virtually any disease caused by a single defective gene. Let me do a rapid fire yes or no. Can you use p. G. D. For tay sachs . Hughes yes. Odonnell muscular dystrophy . Hughes yes. Odonnell sickle cell anemia . Hughes yes. Odonnell hemophilia . Hughes yes. Odonnell huntingtons disease . Hughes its one of the most common disorders we test for yes. Odonnell alzheimers disease . Hughes if its a mutation in a particular gene that causes early onset, we can test for it, yes. Odonnell so you can test for alzheimers. Hughes this is a small subset of a particular kind of alzheimers that attacks very early in life. Odonnell colon cancer . Hughes if we know which of the colon cancer genes, yes. Odonnell Breast Cancer . Hughes we do it regularly. Odonnell dr. Hughes lab is one of a handful in the country that provides this genetic testing, which is why 3,000 couples turn to him each year, among them, matt and melinda who asked that we not use their last name. If they hadnt done the embryo screening procedure, their four yearold son mason and his baby sister marian might very well have been born with a genetic mutation that increases the risk of breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancer. It wasnt until melinda herself was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Breast Cancer seven years ago that she found out she carried that gene mutation known as brca1. Did you know what brca1 was . Melinda not a clue. Odonnell but as it turned out, it had haunted her family for generations. At age 29, facing chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, melinda was afraid that if she h