Here is another reason why Medicare
is in shambles.
Our
current system needs to be reformed in some capacity. But, we need to take a couple steps back and see what the real problems
are first. There is way too much FRAUD and ABUSE going on in this industry.
Lowering prices
on medical equipment, capping products and stopping patients from their right to choose which medical supply company that
they want to use is not the answer.
Here is another black eye to our industry.
Robert Saul and his wife allegedly thought they could get rich by
giving people expensive power wheelchairs and other medical equipment - equipment they didn't need - and falsely billing
Medicare.
And they thought
they had their bases covered by allegedly telling baffled recipients that Philadelphia was giving out $3,200 wheelchairs for
free, or having sources in doctors' offices intercepting phone calls from confused patients.
But the alleged scheme fell apart, according to U.S. Attorney Michael
L. Levy.
Saul, 36, and his
wife, Sheila, 51, were charged yesterday by the U.S. Attorney's Office with defrauding Medicare and other programs by
submitting more than $1.2 million in bogus claims.
Saul and his wife, who both live in Philadelphia, own R&V Medical Supplies, which is located on the
11th floor at 1420 Walnut St., in Center City. The company is still in business.
The Sauls did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.
Also charged yesterday were Lisa Burnett, 40, of Philadelphia, and Carol Mason, 57, of Norristown.
Burnett and Mason worked at a Philadelphia nonprofit
that provided service to seniors and the disabled. They allegedly provided the Sauls with client information that was used
to bill Medicare for unneeded medical supplies, and for which they were paid kickbacks.
In separate court filings, Susan Landolf, 27, and Debra Stallings,
43, both of Philadelphia, also were charged with participating in the scheme. Landolf worked at a medical clinic and then
at R&V. Stallings worked at a private medical practice. Since they were charged in criminal informations, it is likely
they have negotiated guilty pleas.
"This case involves breaches of trust at every level: From the medical office employees who sold patients'
identity information, to the people charged today who used the Medicare Trust as their personal ATMs," Levy said.
"Any Medicare beneficiary who gets equipment
that they know nothing about, or who sees payments for equipment on their explanations of benefits that they do not recognize,
should contact the number on the explanation of benefits forms immediately to report it," Levy said.
Andy Scolnick, VP
Seventh Street Medical Supply, Inc
307
E. Pennsylvania Blvd.
Feasterville, PA 19053
(215)
396-2450
www.seventhstreetmedicalsupply.com
info@seventhstreetmedicalsupply.com
This is why our healthcare is in shambles. It is people like this that need to be banned from doing any type
of business in the healthcare profession. A slap on the wrist is not acceptable.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Federal agents arrested 26 suspects in three states Tuesday, including
a doctor and nurses, in a major crackdown on Medicare fraud totaling $61 million in separate scams.
Arrests in Miami,
Brooklyn and Detroit included a Florida doctor accused of running a $40 million home health care scheme that falsely listed
patients as blind diabetics so that he could bill for twice-daily nurse visits.
The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services said the indicted suspects lined up bogus patients and otherwise billed Medicare for
unnecessary medical equipment, physical therapy and HIV infusions.
Indictments were issued for 32 people in all, but
the status of the other suspects wasn't immediately known.
Miami Dr. Fred Dweck, along with 14 people with whom
he worked, was accused in an indictment of running a scam to tap a Medicare program that pays very high rates to care for
the sickest patients.
Dweck referred about 1,279 Medicare beneficiaries for expensive and unnecessary home health and
therapy services, bribing the owners of two Miami clinics to join the scam. He also faked medical certifications, according
to the indictment.
A telephone listing for Dweck could not be found and it was unclear if he had a lawyer.
"No
matter what type of fraud is committed, there is one common denominator and that denominator is greed," Assistant Attorney
General Lanny Breuer said. "Medicare fraud is not a victimless crime. It hurts every American taxpayer by raising the
cost of health care."
The raids come a week after a report that Miami-Dade County received more than half a billion
dollars from Medicare in home health care payments intended for the sickest patients in 2008, which is more than the rest
of the country combined, according to a report by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General.
Medicare paid the county about $520 million, even though only 2 percent of those patients receiving home health care live
here.
In Detroit's raids, suspects paid recruiters to find patients willing to feign symptoms to justify expensive
testing, including nerve conduction studies, federal authorities said.
A mother and son were charged in Brooklyn with
billing Medicare $246 per patient for expensive shoe inserts reserved for diabetes patients, even though they only provided
cheap, over-the-counter versions.
Including Tuesday's arrests, a Medicare Fraud strike force formed by the Justice
and Health departments has now charged suspects accused of bilking Medicare of more than $1 billion in less than two years.
The
pilot strike force, which started in Miami in 2007, has indicted more than 460 suspects in Medicare fraud scams. The program
is now in Los Angeles, Houston and Detroit. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also announced Tuesday the operation will expand
to Tampa, Fla., Baton Rouge, La., and Brooklyn.
Cleaning up an estimated $60 billion a year in Medicare fraud will be
key to President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul. HHS and DOJ have promised more money and manpower to fight
the fraud.
Andy Scolnick, VP
Seventh Street Medical Supply, Inc
307 E. Pennsylvania Blvd.
Feasterville, PA 19053
(215) 396-2450
www.seventhstreetmedicalsupply.com
info@seventhstreetmedicalsupply.com
