Healthcare Waste Archives - Page 15 of 25

Chadron mental health therapist ordered to pay over $300,000 to state

June 20, 2017

Attorney General Doug Peterson announced today that a judge has ordered a Chadron-area mental health therapist to pay more than $300,000 to the state due to her improper billing practices.

Dawes County District Judge Travis O’Gorman ordered Anna Young to pay $308,866.80 after an investigation by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Unit found that she had billed Nebraska Medicaid $102,955.60 for mental health services. Young admitted that she knowingly failed to maintain documentation to support the submission of the claims, as required by law. She was ordered to repay triple the amount that she billed to Medicaid, per the Nebraska False Medicaid Claims Act.

Improving the quality of our healthcare system: Are we adopting the right approach?

June 20, 2017

This article was sent to us by the author, Ijaz Rauf, President at Eminent Tech Corporation and an Adjunct Professor of Physics, School of Graduate Studies at York University.

Growing evidence of problems in the level of quality and safety of care across healthcare organizations, along with public awareness, has made the quality of health care the talk of town. This has drawn significant government and regulatory attention to healthcare systems across the country. Health Quality Ontario (HQO) was established with the mandate to monitor and report on healthcare performance in Ontario and the mission to bring about meaningful improvement in health care. Besides reporting on the key performance indicators, HQO holds quality rounds to share knowledge and best practices. Recently, I attended one of HQO’s quality rounds, and I left with the impression that quality in health care is not considering the right measures, using the right experts or measuring the right data.

A major Medicare fraud ring was busted in May, and a Houston doctor will not be psyched when he does his time for the crime

June 19, 2017

Earlier this year, Houston psychiatrist Riaz Mazcuri was found guilty for his involvement with a $158 million Medicare fraud scheme being run out of Riverside General Hospital.

He was convicted in May by a federal jury on one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and five counts of fraud, and his sentencing is set for October.

Ontario doctors go to court to keep billing information secret

June 19, 2017

Two groups of doctors and the Ontario Medical Association are headed to court Monday to argue that OHIP payments to top-billing physicians are “personal information” and should not be public.

The information and privacy commissioner last year ordered the public disclosure of the top billers’ identities, along with amounts each receives in payments from the taxpayer-funded insurance plan. The information is business-related, not personal, and should be public because of the importance of transparency of government expenditures, the ruling said.

Agency Owner Sentenced in $400 Million Home Health Fraud

June 15, 2017

The owner of a home health agency in Dallas has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for his role in the nation’s largest home health care fraud scheme in history—a nearly $400 million scam, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Wilbert James Veasey, Jr., 65, was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $23 million in restitution to Medicare and more than $500,000 to Medicaid. Veasey, along with several others involved in the scheme, was found guilty last year. He has been in custody since early 2016.

Florida Doctor Receives 10-Year Sentence For Sober Home Scheme

June 15, 2017

A Florida doctor has received a 10-year federal prison sentence for the role he played in a sober-home fraud scheme that prompted widespread investigation.

Donald Willems, 41, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and received the maximum sentence, according to The Palm Beach Post. According to court documents, Willems signed off on unnecessary drug, allergy and DNA tests during his time as the medical director at Reflections Treatment Center in Margate, Florida.

American Medical Association opposes Medicaid funding caps, adopts new policies

June 14, 2017

The American Medical Association’s House of Delegates voted to adopt new policies during the national physician organization’s annual meeting this week, and in the process reaffirmed its opposition to caps on Medicaid funding, eyeing a possible healthcare overhaul by Congress and the Trump administration.

Carl A. Sirio, MD, said in a statement that capping Medicaid funding would be “disastrous” for patients because it would limit medical responses to unforeseen events and medical innovations.

Trump tells Senators new GOP healthcare bill is ‘mean’

June 14, 2017

During a lunch meeting with GOP senators on Wednesday, President Donald Trump called the House-version of the American Health Care Act “mean,” and urged them to make it more generous.

Trump reportedly talked about having a bill come out of the Senate that protects people with preexisting conditions and having a tax credit that works for low income elderly Americans, according to the story originally reported by the Associated Press.

NDP puts London senior waiting for hip replacement surgery in spotlight

June 12, 2017

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath used some real-life examples Monday to blast the Liberal record on health care.

With London Health Sciences Centre as a background, Horwath introduced Bev McCann at a news conference.

The London senior said her life has been on hold while she’s been waiting for hip replacement surgery for more than 18 months.

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Horwath blamed the Liberal government and preceding Progressive Conservative governments for decades of cuts and waiting lists.

Canada pays more for prescription drugs for common conditions than other wealthy countries: CMAJ study

June 12, 2017

Canada had the second-highest medication costs for common conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol in 2015 compared to nine other countries with universal health-care systems, a study published in the CMAJ says. (David Donnelly/CBC)

Canada had the second-highest medication costs for common conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol in 2015 compared to nine other affluent countries with universal health-care systems, suggests a new study calling for a national drug plan to lower prices.