Posted on 09/26/2019 10:20:18 AM PDT by grumpygresh
The Justice Department announced today a significant health care fraud enforcement operation across Florida and Georgia, involving charges against a total of 67 individuals across four federal districts for their alleged involvement in various schemes to defraud Medicare and Medicaid. The conduct allegedly resulted in more than $160 million in fraudulent billings. Those charged included physicians as well as other medical and business professionals. In addition, in the state of Florida, 16 defendants, including one licensed mental health professionals, have been charged with defrauding the Medicaid program out of over $1.2 million. Florida’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) investigated these cases.
(Excerpt) Read more at justice.gov ...
If that press release is accurate, every single perp on that list deserves what he or she has got coming.
MEGA MAGA WINNING !!!!!!!
“If that press release is accurate.”
Of course it’s accurate, the government never lies.
Dude, I did use the conditional, didn’t I...
If they want to fine the biggest crooks they need to look into nursing homes...
Medicare fraud is not because of over regulation
True. But it all depends on what is the truth and who gets to decide.
Obviously, the government always has a big, big advantage here. They control the information, they have endless resources.
G, Medicare/Medicaid fraud generally isn’t that hard to prove. The problem is freeing up the manpower to go after it.
No, it’s because of the government bureaucrats running the programs who have no incentive to pay attention and who have no skin in the game.
Regarding federal government interference with state sovereignty, it’s even worse than what you mentioned imo.
More specifically, regardless what the misguided, institutionally indoctrinated (imo) Roberts Court wants everybody to believe about federal healthcare programs, the court seeming “overlooked” the following from related threads imo.
It overlooked that previous generations of state sovereignty-respecting Supreme Court justices had clarified that the states have never expressly constitutional given the feds the specific power to regulate, tax and spend in the name of INTRAstate healthcare.
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States."Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
"State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphases added].” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
"Inspection laws, quarantine laws, health laws of every description [emphasis added], as well as laws for regulating the internal commerce of a state and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c., are component parts of this mass.” —Justice Barbour, New York v. Miln., 1837.
"Obviously, direct control of medical practice [emphases added] in the states is beyond the power of the federal government.” —Linder v. United States, 1925.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
In fact, the congressional record shows that Rep. John Bingham, a constitutional lawmaker, had clarified that the Founding States had left the care of the people uniquely to the states, not the federal government.
”... the care of the property, the liberty, and the life of the citizen, under the solemn sanction of an oath imposed by your Federal Constitution, is in the States, and not in the Federal Government [emphases added].” —Rep. John Bingham, Congressional Globe, 1866. (See about middle of 3rd column.)
Also consider that Justice Brandeis had reflected on Bingham's statement when Brandeis indicated that it is up to the individual states to experiment with the social spending programs, healthcare and retirement programs for example, ultimately depending on what the legal majority voting citizens of a given state want.
"It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose [emphasis added], serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” —Justice Brandeis, Laboratories of democracy.
(Note that constitutional limits on states as laboratories of democracy is that states cannot establish privileged / protected classes or abridge constitutionally enumerated rights, and must maintain a constitutionally guaranteed republican form of government.)
So what happened to state sovereignty to establish custom state healthcare and retirement programs for example?
Using inappropriate words like "concept" and "implicit" here is what was left of 10th Amendment (10A)-protected state sovereignty after FDR’s state sovereignty-ignoring majority justices got finished with it in Wickard v. Filburn.
"10th Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
"In discussion and decision, the point of reference, instead of being what was "necessary and proper" to the exercise by Congress of its granted power, was often some concept [???] of sovereignty thought to be implicit [??? emphases added] in the status of statehood." —Wickard v. Filburn, 1942
In fact, Speaker Pelosi seemingly took advantage of the scandalous, politically correct repeal of 10A by FDR's state sovereignty-ignoring activist justices. This is evidenced by her irresponsible ignoring (imo) of a resolution to propose a healthcare amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification before wrongly ramming Obamacare through the House.
Had Pelosi instead upheld her oath to protect and defend the Constitution by leading Congress to successfully petition the states to ratify a constitutionally required healthcare amendment to the Constitution before helping to establish unconstitutional Obamacare, then I wouldn't be making this post.
Patriots need to elect a new Congress that will not only promise to fully support PDJT's vision for MAGA, now KAG, but will also do this.
The new Congress also needs to promise to work with PDJT to take all constitutionally indefensible federal laws out of the books.
Congress will also need to work with PDJT to decide the fate of people who are in prison for breaking federal laws that the corrupt, post-17th Amendment ratification feds never had the express constitutional authority to make.
Remember in November 2020!
Govt is price insensitive. Bad docs will commit fraud to make lots of money. Good docs don’t like to do Medicare patients because the pay rate is ridiculously low
Govt should get out of healthcare altogether
That is why Medicare alone has a $65 Billion a year fraud. Double billing, double testing. I see 4 Specialist, besides the Primary, not 1 of their computers talk to the other. I Try to set my Specialist test up before I see the PCP. Because he will run their test, and then they have to order a different more expensive test to get the results of a simple EKG, or Lab work. Endo especially doesn’t like PCP running his test.
Thanks for doing the heavy lifting.
Sure, a lot of these people probably violated rules and perhaps some did so knowingly and abusively. But you understand the overall point very well that the administrative states has gone wild and makes law without any meaningful congressional oversight and intent. Basically congress is uninformed and/or passing the buck.
Secondly healthcare law should be crafted at that state level, but the public including many purported conservatives have been conditioned into thinking that the federal government is sovereign for just about everything.
And thirdly there is the principle that when laws and regulations are exceedingly complex, it can be difficult to comply with them fully. James Madison and others warned us of this. This is often the case with smaller practices that are not arms with attorneys and compliance officers.
I wish people could realize that if these issues, violations, crimes were handled at the State level, we would have better oversight of the legislative and judicial process. With more public accountability there would be more confidence in the system. Right now, we can’t say that with the federal doj and federal police.
FTA: he conduct allegedly resulted in more than $160 million in fraudulent billings.
How do you steal $160 million?
Does the state and Federal not have accounting software?
It’s complete chaos.
Restating my previous post in less detail, not only are state actors allegedly defrauding so-called federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid, but the states have never amended the Constitution to give the feds the specific power to establish Medicare and Medicaid.
In other words, in stark contrast to needing meaningful congressional oversight and intent, Medicare and Medicaid are based on stolen state powers and uniquely associated stolen state revenues, revenues stolen by means of unconstitutional federal taxes.
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States."Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
So corrupt state actors are defrauding unconstitutional, vote-winning federal spending programs.
If the feds were not stealing state taxes then each state would ultimately find more revenues to experiment with and police its own custom healthcare and retirement programs, ultimately depending on what the legal majority voters of a given state want.
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