A home-health worker accused of falsifying records and taking hundreds of dollars from a client is not entitled to unemployment benefits, an Iowa judge has ruled.
According to state records, Tara Frank was employed by the long-term company ABCM Corporation as a home-health personal care assistant January 2022 until February 2024, when she was terminated after an elderly client complained about being billed for services that were never rendered by Frank and about Frank’s failure to repay money she’s been loaned.
The client claimed she had loaned Frank small amounts of money that totaled $400 to $500, and that Frank had only repaid $20 of that amount.
Krystal Thoe, the administrator at Oakwood Care Center in Clear Lake, which employed Frank, spoke to the client who asserted that when Frank came to her home, she would spend much of her time on the couch chatting rather than performing any of the assigned housekeeping and personal-care duties.
According to ABCM, Frank admitted that she had been falsely documenting housekeeping services that were never performed. Frank also was alleged to have admitted to borrowing money from the client in violation of the company’s policies on abuse and financial exploitation.
After Frank was fired, she subsequently sought unemployment benefits, which led to a hearing before Administrative Law Judge James Timberland. At the hearing, Frank allegedly admitted falsely documenting services never performed but said she later returned to the client’s home to do the work in her free time. She also acknowledged a year-long pattern of irregular financial transactions involving the client’s funds, but said that what the client described as loans were actually repayments for Frank fronting the cost of the client’s expenses.
Timberland denied Frank unemployment benefits, finding she has committed workplace misconduct.
