Charges of Health Care Fraud Prompt Port of Long Beach Friction

This story was reported by City News Service

A group of workers walked off the job at the Port of Long Beach, Monday but an official at the Pacific Maritime Association said the employees have been ordered by an arbitrator to end the walkout by 6 p.m.

According to port spokesman Art Wong, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union failed to report for work at a terminal that was scheduled to receive a shipment of Toyota automobiles from Japan. The workers took part in some picketing, but the labor action was not technically a strike, according to Wade Gates, a spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association, which is responsible for negotiating labor contracts for the employers at West Coast ports.

A representative of the ILWU Local 13 was not immediately available for comment. Gates said the dispute arose after a ``fraud administrator'' brought in by both the association and the union identified tens of millions of dollars in possible health insurance abuses. The administrator contended that doctors and health-care providers made claims for procedures that were never performed, were paid for procedures -- such as cosmetic surgery -- that are not covered under the health care plan between the ports and the workers and are inflating patient bills, Gates said.

 Instead of picketing, union members should be joining the association in cracking down on the abuses, Gates said. There have been no changes to the workers' health insurance plan since a 2008 agreement between the two sides, according to Gates. He said both parties agreed to bring in a new ``third-party'' administrator for the plan, as well as to hiring someone to ``monitor claims for fraud and abuse.''