A St. Louis-area home care provider, Midland Empire Resources for Independent Living in St. Joseph, settled Medicaid fraud charges for $130,000. "MERIL failed to ensure personal care services that were billed to Medicaid were actually provided to clients," Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster alleges in a release. Either the patients were institutionalized or workers were working someplace else. MERIL says it will implement new quality assurance procedures to prevent such billings in the future, according to the release.