health care system Archives - Page 3 of 5

An epic case of medical fraud – and the agent who cracked it

June 21, 2017

It started with a letter from US Senator Charles Grassley.

In December 2009, the Iowa Republican demanded to know how a Miami psychiatrist was writing more than 96,000 prescriptions for Medicaid patients. It was nearly twice the number of the second highest prescriber in Florida.

The psychiatrist, Dr. Fernando Mendez-Villamil, responded with a tartly worded message of his own. “I never thought I would be faulted for working hard or for being very organized and efficient,” he wrote the senator.

Health-care fraud costs the US government and insurance companies some $100 billion a year in overcharges and other rip offs, according to experts. It is a perpetual drain on the nation’s wealth, undercutting the ability to provide quality healthcare to those most in need.

Ontario Psychiatric Hospital Tortured Patients: Judge

June 21, 2017

An Ontario court has ruled that a provincial mental health facility ran therapeutic programs for years that amounted to torture for the patients involved.

Justice Paul Perell’s ruling came in the midst of a lengthy lawsuit filed by past and present residents of the Oak Ridge division of the Penetang Psychiatric Hospital in Penetanguishene, Ont., that alleges patients were gravely mistreated.

Perell says three programs at the hospital that involved the forced administration of drugs, physical restraint and sleep deprivation, amounted to both physical and mental torture.

(original article appeared 8 June 2017)

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.

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.

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.

…

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.

Health-care system a free-for-all for double-dipping doctors

June 12, 2017

When you read about Canadians coerced into paying thousands of dollars for quicker access to health-care services that should be available to them at no cost in the publicly funded health system, it is infuriating.

It feels downright un-Canadian.

But, more than anything, the exposé of queue-jumping and double-dipping by The Globe and Mail’s Kathy Tomlinson speaks to the impotence of the regulatory regime.

Ontario judge finds treatment at mental health facility was ‘torture’

June 8, 2017

An Ontario court has ruled that a provincial mental health facility ran therapeutic programs for years that amounted to torture for the patients involved.

Perell says three programs at the hospital that involved the forced administration of drugs, physical restraint and sleep deprivation, amounted to both physical and mental torture.

9 Of The Most Staggeringly Awful Statements Republicans Have Made About Health Care Just This Year

June 5, 2017

In 2009, Rep. Alan Grayson characterized the Republican approach to health care as “don’t get sick, and if you do, die quickly.” Eight years later, the Florida Democrat’s words ring truer than ever, especially in light of the House’s passage of the American Health Care Act.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill would deprive 23 million of health insurance by 2026, resulting in substantial premium hikes and out-of-pocket expenses for older Americans and people with preexisting conditions. And the more Republicans are confronted with the devastating consequences of Trumpcare, the more evident it becomes how clueless they are on the Affordable Care Act specifically and health care more generally.