Healthcare Waste Archives - Page 17 of 25

Toronto health-care company billed Ontario, regional governments millions as employees allege missed payments

May 30, 2017

A Toronto-based health-care company that’s been the subject of a number of employee complaints of late or non-payment has received millions in contracts from the provincial and regional governments.

Abira Healthcare — a designated physiotherapy service provider approved and funded by Ontario’s Ministry of Health — is reportedly consistently delayed in paying some therapists hired to work in long-term care homes, a CBC Toronto investigation has found. Some complaints date back almost five years.

To provide its services, Abira — which is owned by Dani Diena and also operates as a numbered company: 2275518 Ontario Inc. — hires independent contractors throughout southwestern Ontario to carry out physiotherapy and other rehabilitation at care homes and clinics across the province. It also operates a physiotherapy clinic in north Toronto.

Canadian Health Care Is Failing Our Refugees

May 26, 2017

Despite policy changes last April to Canada’s refugee health care program, many people continue to be left without adequate access to health care.

That’s the finding that comes out of a series of interviews we conducted recently with refugee service providers in Ottawa.

Health care for refugees in Canada falls under the responsibility of the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), and it has had some tumultuous years.

In June 2012, the federal government made significant cuts to the program, leaving many refugees and refugee claimants without access to publicly-funded health care while causing serious confusion among health care providers.

Health care advocates challenged the cuts in the Federal Court and in 2014, the Court found the cuts violated the Charter as they were “cruel and unusual.”

Psychiatrist convicted in $158 million Medicare scheme involving SNF residents

May 25, 2017

A Texas psychiatrist was convicted on Tuesday for his role in a $158 million Medicare fraud scheme that involved paying kickbacks to nursing home employees in exchange for patient referrals.
Riaz Mazcuri, M.D., along with other healthcare providers, engaged in a scheme between 2006 and 2012 to admit patients into an intensive psychiatric program known as a partial hospitalization program, or PHP, through Riverside General Hospital in Houston.

Wyoming psychologist indicted on $6.8 million in healthcare fraud

May 24, 2017

Cheyenne, Wyo. – A federal grand jury returned an indictment on May 19th charging Powell psychologist Gibson Condie with 234 counts of health care fraud involving approximately $6.8 million in fraudulent bills submitted to Wyoming Medicaid.

That’s according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This indictment was the result of an investigation by the FBI, the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, and the Wyoming Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

The FBI And Defense Department Are Investigating America’s Biggest Psychiatric Hospital Chain

May 23, 2017

America’s largest chain of psychiatric hospitals is the target of a multi-agency federal investigation into whether it systematically holds patients longer than necessary to maximize revenues — an allegation two nurses at one of its facilities raised following a protest at its headquarters in Pennsylvania last week.

According to three sources with direct knowledge of the investigation, officials are examining whether Universal Health Services directs its hospitals to hold patients for as many days as their insurer agrees to pay for, regardless of actual medical need. The probe has been ongoing since at least 2013, when the Department of Health and Human Services issued subpoenas to 10 UHS psychiatric hospitals.

But BuzzFeed News has exclusively learned that the investigation has since broadened to include the FBI and the Department of Defense, which is scrutinizing UHS’s billings to Tricare, the insurance plan for active military and their families. UHS, a $12 billion company, made nearly one-third of its revenues last year from government insurance providers such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Canadians know their healthcare isn’t perfect, but they would never trade their system for America’s

May 22, 2017

In my view, the major failure of President Obama and the Democrats in 2009 was that they did not frame or discuss health insurance reform as a human rights issue but rather got bogged down playing defense against Republican canards like socialism and death panels.

I’m a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. Canada’s single-payer system isn’t perfect, but I can say that the stress experienced by the cancer survivor in Lazarus’ column who had to file for bankruptcy would never have happened in Canada. While Canadians might complain from time to time, they would not trade their system for the one in the United States.

Cash-strapped World Health Organization slammed for high travel costs

May 21, 2017

LONDON — Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, traveled to Guinea earlier this month to join the country’s president in celebrating the world’s first Ebola vaccine.

After praising health workers in West Africa for their triumph over the lethal virus, Chan spent the night in the presidential suite at the beach-side Palm Camayenne hotel. The suite, equipped with marble bathrooms and a dining room that seats eight, has an advertised price of 900 euros ($1,008) per night.

Some say such luxurious accommodations send the wrong message to the rest of WHO’s 7,000 staffers — and may hurt the cash-strapped health agency’s fundraising efforts to fight diseases worldwide.

Historically long health-care wait times cost Canadians $1.7 billion last year

May 18, 2017

VANCOUVER—Long waits for surgery and medical treatment cost Canadians $1.7 billion—or $1,759 per patient—in lost wages and time last year, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

“Long wait times have real consequences for many Canadians who, in addition to experiencing increased pain and suffering, may lose income from not working and may also be unable to fully enjoy time spent with family and friends,” said Bacchus Barua, senior economist in the Fraser Institute’s Centre for Health Policy Studies and co-author of The Private Cost of Public Queues for Medically Necessary Care, 2017.

Time for second opinion on health care

May 17, 2017

The health care debate has flooded the news as Congress attempts to repeal and craft a replacement for the Affordable Care Act — an increase of governmental involvement and regulation albeit considerably less than a single-payer system such as Canada’s. The costs of the law, it seems, have been the impetus for calls to replace it. In fact, enthusiasm for single-payer coverage plummets when people find out the coverage’s costs.

America’s health care system constitutes one-sixth of the nation’s economy. The Affordable Care Act has obvious problems: it is flawed in its conception and basic design, and is failing the American people. The public was not enthusiastic about the Affordable Care Act but got it anyway.

I recently received a letter from a constituent asking two questions: (1) Why is the United States the only advanced, industrialized country in the world without a single-payer health care system; and (2) Why does health care in the United States cost twice as much as that in other countries yet provides lesser results? I will approach these questions the way I do with every issue — with research. Remember, never substitute emotion for scholarship.

Less than 20 per cent of Health Canada staff received mandatory ethics training

May 16, 2017

Fewer than 20 per cent of employees at Canada’s health and public works departments received mandatory training on ethics, values and conflict of interest between 2013 and 2016, a report from Canada’s auditor general, Michael Ferguson, has found.

The audit on fraud risk management published Tuesday examined both Health Canada and Public Services and Procurement Canada, along with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) and Global Affairs Canada (GAC). It examined how well the five organizations were equipped to deal with the risk of fraud between April 1, 2013 and October 21, 2016.