editor, Author at Monitor Telegram

Toronto psychiatrist stripped of licence for romantic relationship with patient

August 23, 2017

In a display of its tougher stance on misconduct involving patient-doctor relationships, the discipline committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has revoked the licence of a psychiatrist who entered into a romantic relationship with a patient he intends to marry.

Whereas similar conduct in previous cases was typically met with suspensions, the decision to strip Toronto doctor Nagi Ghabbour’s licence is likely a response to criticism that the committee was being too lenient in the past, critics say.

Doctor’s office tied to $67M healthcare fraud case

August 21, 2017

A medical practice in Tennessee and a pharmacy in Utah are both implicated in a $67 million healthcare fraud investigation.

The alleged kickback scheme involved Marines in the San Diego, California, area who were used to defraud TRICARE, the military’s health insurance provider, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Surrey chiropractor ordered to pay almost $20,000 for ICBC fraud

August 17, 2017

A Surrey chiropractor has been ordered to pay almost $20,000 after he was found guilty of defrauding ICBC.

Dr. Maninder Singh Badyal, the owner of Absolute Health and Wellness Clinic in Surrey, was convicted in June of committing fraud over $5,000 and billing ICBC for treatments that were never performed.

The investigation dates back to October, 2014, when an ICBC adjuster noticed some irregularities in documentation involving one patient.

How Ontario doctors messed up on secret pay: Hepburn

August 16, 2017

The Ontario Medical Association, which represents 29,000 doctors, may be the most dysfunctional professional group in the entire province, if not all of Canada.

Since January, the powerful OMA has been torn apart by vicious infighting that saw the sudden resignation of its entire executive team, a nasty campaign of cyberbullying pitting doctors against doctors, the election of a slate of dissident doctors to lead the association, and the resignation of nine hardline members of its governing council who claimed the OMA still muzzles dissenting voices.

Privacy commissioner investigating after man finds information of 60 patients on back of prescription

August 16, 2017

A Toronto man is raising concerns about the privacy of patients after he discovered what he believes are the names, birth dates and health card numbers of 60 people on the back of a prescription printed for his wife by her family doctor.

Last month, Eddie Soltani’s wife had an appointment with Dr. Michael Lai in downtown Toronto.

Her husband picked her up and they were about to fill the prescription when Soltani says he discovered a list on the other side containing what he believes is personal information of Lai’s patients.

Doctors propose plan to reveal top OHIP billers

August 15, 2017

Ontario patients may soon learn how much some of the province’s highest billing doctors receive in taxpayer-funded OHIP payments.

If the Ontario Medical Association follows through on a proposal from some of its members, it would assist in publicly releasing the names of some top-billers, a move that would mark a dramatic reversal in its position that such disclosure would be a violation of personal privacy.

Doctors have been discussing the plan for more than a week on a social media site, the Star has learned.

Texas doctor slapped with 35-year sentence and $268M in restitution for massive fraud scheme

August 14, 2017

A 60-year-old Dallas-area doctor will spend decades in prison and pay more than $268 million dollars in restitution after being convicted of conspiracy and healthcare fraud charges as well as obstruction of justice for a scheme that bilked Medicare and Medicaid for hundreds of million of dollars.

For what the Department of Justice called a “large-scale, sophisticated healthcare fraud scheme,” physician Jacques Roy, was sentenced last week to 35 years in prison along with the hefty restitution penalty, for conspiring with several co-defendants to defraud Medicare and Medicaid through companies they owned, including Medistat Group Associates, Apple of Your Eye Health Care Services, Ultimate Care Home Health Services and Charry Home Care Services.

Foreign Farmworkers in Canada Fear Deportation if They Complain

August 13, 2017

SUMMERLAND, British Columbia — Desperate to provide for his family, Hilario Mendoza leapt at the chance to leave Mexico to pick cherries on a farm in British Columbia.

But bad weather left him so idle that he often worked just three hours a day — far less than the 40 hours a week he said he had been promised under Canada’s program for temporary farmworkers. While he waited to go to the fields, he found himself crammed with 34 other laborers into a small house where rain leaked onto their beds.

Months of complaints went nowhere — and then he was abruptly sent back to Mexico.

Paralegal found guilty of defrauding immigrants ‘appears to be on the run’

August 13, 2017

A Toronto paralegal has been found guilty by the legal profession’s watchdog of defrauding clients of over $1 million and providing immigration services for which he was not licensed.

Victor Manuel Castillo Garcia, who was licensed as a paralegal by the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2010, worked with clients from around the world — including Taiwan, Cuba, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Peru — for their permanent residence and work permit applications.

The great carbon scam

August 12, 2017

One thing you learn on the climate change beat is that the best journalism is done overseas.

In Canada, too many in the media, not knowing the issues, are empty vessels waiting to be filled by Trudeau government propaganda, which they uncritically regurgitate to their audiences.

By contrast, in the UK, one of many examples of serious reporting is a new radio documentary by the BBC’s environment correspondent, Matt McGrath.

Called “Carbon Counting,” McGrath reveals how many nations that signed the Paris accord are inaccurately reporting and/or hiding their greenhouse gas emissions from the United Nations.

Reporting is done once every two years, but the accord doesn’t require independent verification of the numbers.