The California Insurance Commissioner, Dave Jones, announced last week that the commission is giving grants to district attorney offices around the state to help them fight workers’ compensation fraud.

District Attorney Offices representing 44 of California’s 58 counties received varying amounts in grant money for a total of $34,951,831. The amounts distributed can be found here. Densely populated Los Angeles County received the most grant money with $6,729,177 followed by San Diego County with $5,028,198. The money is supposed to be used to help law enforcement officers investigate and prosecute fraud.

“Ultimately California consumers and businesses pay the price for insurance fraud through higher premiums and increased costs for goods and services,” said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones.

In a letter to one of the counties receiving funds, Jones said that the county’s program should continue to focus on medical provider fraud, one of the bigger issues in comp fraud. A county’s fund allocation is determined by a panel that makes a funding recommendation to the Fraud Assessment Commission, based on the county’s stated problems, their intended strategy and their past performance. The commission makes comments and if they approve, the county is awarded the grant.

Fraud in California is estimated to cost between $1 billion and $3 billion a year. The National Insurance Crime Bureau estimates that the entire country’s fraudulent schemes total $30 billion a year

Read more about California’s Program for Investigation and Prosecution of Workers’ Compensation Insurance Fraud here.