Medicaid fraud

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News/Politics 2-21-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. First up…. Yes please!

From NationalJournal  “If all goes according to plan, North Koreans will soon have free, uncensored Internet provided by satellites the size of toaster ovens.

That’s part of a project called Outernet, which hopes to launch hundreds of tiny satellites—known as CubeSats—to provide Internet to every person on Earth. Forty percent of the world’s people currently don’t have access to the Web. In a little more than a year, Outernet plans to have a fleet of 24 satellites operational and testing to pave the way for a globe-spanning network.

The satellites won’t be providing conventional Internet right away. They’ll initially be used for one-way communication to provide services like emergency updates, news, crop prices, and educational programs. Users will help determine what content is offered.

The project’s backers say knowledge is a human right—one they intend to provide even in countries where dictators have thus far limited access. “We exist to support the flow of independent news, information, and debate that people need to build free, thriving societies,” said  Peter Whitehead, president of the Media Development Investment Fund, Outernet’s backer. “It enables fuller participation in public life, holds the powerful to account and protects the rights of the individual.”

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2. Next up, a fight between the green energy crowd and the tree huggers. It’s a tough one to call because we know a tortoise can beat a hare, but can he beat a solar panel?

Considering how eagles and other birds fared against the windmill/turbine crowd, I don’t like the slow poke’s chances this time.

From FoxNews  “Plans to create two solar energy plants on public lands in California and Nevada are pitting renewable energy advocates against environmentalists who fear the facilities will endanger federally threatened desert tortoises in the area. 

Federal officials on Wednesday announced the approval of two plants expected to supply 550 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power about 170,000 homes. Secretary of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said more than 700 jobs will be created through construction and operations.”

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3. More on the story from yesterday on govt monitors in news rooms.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” But under the Obama administration, the Federal Communications Commission is planning to send government contractors into the nation’s newsrooms to determine whether journalists are producing articles, television reports, Internet content, and commentary that meets the public’s “critical information needs.” Those “needs” will be defined by the administration, and news outlets that do not comply with the government’s standards could face an uncertain future. It’s hard to imagine a project more at odds with the First Amendment.

The initiative, known around the agency as “the CIN Study” (pronounced “sin”), is a bit of a mystery even to insiders. “This has never been put to an FCC vote, it was just announced,” says Ajit Pai, one of the FCC’s five commissioners (and one of its two Republicans). “I’ve never had any input into the process,” adds Pai, who brought the story to the public’s attention in a Wall Street Journal column last week.”

“Advocates promote the project with Obama-esque rhetoric. “This study begins the charting of a course to a more effective delivery of necessary information to all citizens,” said FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn in 2012. Clyburn, daughter of powerful House Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, was appointed to the FCC by President Obama and served as acting chair for part of last year. The FCC, Clyburn said, “must emphatically insist that we leave no American behind when it comes to meeting the needs of those in varied and vibrant communities of our nation — be they native born, immigrant, disabled, non-English speaking, low-income, or other.” (The FCC decided to test the program with a trial run in Ms. Clyburn’s home state, South Carolina.)

Also not surprising are the Annenberg ties. Obama and his buddy Ayers are familiar with their work, having served on their board.

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4. And now they play dumb. 🙄

How were they to know that cutting 700 billion from Medicare to pay for ObamaCare would be a problem? Nobody mentioned it. Well, except for every conservative publication out there. 🙄

From NationalReview  “The National Republican Senatorial Committee points out that North Carolina senator Kay Hagan and other vulnerable Senate Democrats are now whacking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid . . . for enacting changes required by Obamacare. Hey, Senator Hagan, if you want to blame someone, blame the foolish or dishonest lawmakers who voted for the law!

Wait a minute, that’s you!

In 2009, Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) promised North Carolinians who depend on Medicare that she was going to “protect Medicare” and that they would “not see a drop in their Medicare coverage.”


But in 2010 Kay Hagan voted to slash Medicare Advantage to pay for ObamaCare. (H.R. 4872, CQ Vote #72: Motion agreed to 56-42: R 0-40; D 54-2; I 2-0, 3/24/10, Hagan Voted Yea)
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They own it. Keep pointing that out.

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5. And with millions of new Medicaid enrollees, the possibility for fraud like this will only increase.

From DCCrimeStories  “More than 20 people have been arrested in what federal prosecutors are calling the largest healthcare fraud takedown in the history of the District of Columbia.

Following a multi-year-long investigation into bogus billing practices, more than 200 law enforcement agents spread across the region Thursday to raid homes and businesses, make arrests and seize dozens of bank accounts and property. 

Those arrested include operators of home care agencies, operators of nurse staffing agencies, office workers and personal care assistants. One woman is accused of bilking taxpayers out of $75 million.”

““This investigation has revealed that Medicaid fraud in the District of Columbia is at epidemic levels,” said U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen.  “This fraud diverts precious taxpayer dollars, drives up the cost of health care, and jeopardizes the strength of a program that serves the most vulnerable members of our society.”

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News/Politics 12-6-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Chaos for doctors, and bad news for Medicaid patients.

From CNBC  “Right now that back end is in chaos. … We don’t even know if we should sign up for these plans, because we have a suspicion that many of [them] offer very little reimbursement or offer a loss to the physicians who are going to see these patients,” Grace told Larry Kudlow on CNBC’s “Kudlow Report”.

“No physician wants to take money out of his pocket and put it in the government’s.”

“The administration released a 50-state report Tuesday morning saying that nearly 1.5 million people had been found eligible for Medicaid during October, far outpacing enrollment eligibility in subsidized private coverage. But as Obamacare puts more people in the Medicaid system, Grace said fewer doctors are treating Medicaid patients.

“The problem is, who’s going to care for you when you have Medicaid?” he said. “For an hour-and-15-minute evaluation of a cancer patient, I get $6.50. That won’t even pay for the electricity. What kind of physician will you get … what kind of specialist will you get?”

I can answer that. This kind.

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2. Low-information leadership?

With a Hat Tip to Michelle. 🙂

From TheWallStJournal  “It’s a shock for most people that it’s a shambles. A fellow very friendly to the administration, a longtime supporter, cornered me at a holiday party recently to ask, with true perplexity: “How could any president put his entire reputation on the line with a program and not be on the phone every day pushing people and making sure it will work? Do you know of any president who wouldn’t do that?” I couldn’t think of one, and it’s the same question I’d been asking myself. The questioner had been the manager of a great institution, a high stakes 24/7 operation with a lot of moving parts. He knew Murphy’s law—if it can go wrong, it will. Managers—presidents—have to obsess, have to put the fear of God, as Mr. Obama says, into those below them in the line of authority. They don’t have to get down in the weeds every day but they have to know there are weeds, and that things get caught in them.

It’s a leader’s job to be skeptical of grand schemes. Sorry, that’s a conservative leader’s job. It is a liberal leader’s job to be skeptical that grand schemes will work as intended. You have to guide and goad and be careful.

And this president wasn’t. I think part of the reason he wasn’t careful is because he sort of lives in words. That’s been his whole professional life—books, speeches. Say something and it magically exists as something said, and if it’s been said and publicized it must be real. He never had to push a lever, see the machine not respond, puzzle it out and fix it. It’s all been pretty abstract for him, not concrete. He never had to stock a store, run a sale and see lots of people come but the expenses turn out to be larger than you’d expected and the profits smaller, and you have to figure out what went wrong and do better next time.

People say Mr. Obama never had to run anything, but it may be more important that he never worked for the guy who had to run something, and things got fouled up along the way and he had to turn it around. He never had to meet a payroll, never knew that stress. He probably never had to buy insurance! And you know, his policies were probably gold-plated—at the law firm, through his wife’s considerable hospital job, in the Illinois Legislature, in the U.S. Senate. Those guys know how to take care of themselves! Maybe he felt guilty. Maybe that’s to his credit, knowing he was lucky. Too bad he didn’t know what he didn’t know, like how every part has to work for a complicated machine to work.”

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3. As I’m sure you’re aware, Nelson Mandela has died. Mary Katharine Ham has written a good piece on him and his impact on the world.

From HotAir  ““Our nation has lost its greatest son,” [South African] President Jacob Zuma said in a televised address on Thursday night, adding that Mr. Mandela had died at 8:50 p.m. local time. “His humility, his compassion and his humanity earned him our love.”

The Internet is awash with remembrances of Mandela from people who never knew him. Some will be self-important and tiresome, but most are just the honest, gut feelings of millions—each a testament to the reach of this towering, touching figure of the 20th century. I never knew him, but I knew the power of his inspiration and his example. As a kid, attending majority-black schools in North Carolina less than a generation removed from segregation, my classmates and I knew we were there, together, because of the bravery and leadership of good people who came before us. It was a hard thing to grasp at 7 (likely easier for my black classmates), vague at first. We played hopscotch under the arc of the moral universe, rarely looking skyward to see where it was bending. But there were moments when, in our innocence, we could feel the weight of what happened before we were born— a trip to Woolworth’s in Greensboro just minutes away or the release of Nelson Mandela on the other side of the world.”

“Greater awareness and hormones intervened, turning middle school into a place of racial tension where old friendships were taboo and anger reigned. Mandela’s example of a man supremely wronged who did not let bitterness overtake him seemed amazing, otherworldly. I’ll always be thankful he was the leader who rose while a bunch of confused teenagers in North Carolina were hurting from wounds old and new. Mandela’s life and death, of course, are not about me or my experiences. But the enormity of what Mandela did gave so many the opportunity to discover the beautiful joys and challenges we experienced alongside all God’s children. And, he gave my friends and me an idea of the giant people and giant sacrifices required to allow us to live in a neighborhood where “little black boys and girls” literally, routinely held hands with “little white boys and girls.” It was a gift and it wasn’t always a given. But it’s easy to take for granted what seems impossible after it’s already been done.”

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4. Huh. It seems the new Egyptian govt is smarter than ours when it comes to the Brotherhood. They’re not afraid to admit the obvious, unlike the Obama admin who funded them.

From TheJerusalemPost  “Egyptian media reported Thursday that the government is preparing to deem the  Muslim Brotherhood “a terrorist organization,” as pro-Morsi organizations sent  out a call for protests to be held over the weekend.

The Egyptian El-Watan newspaper, which tends to support the military and oppose the Muslim  Brotherhood, reported that interim Prime Minister Hazem el- Beblawi discussed in  a closed meeting with a number of ministers a detailed directive that declares  the Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

The government blames the  organization for violence and terrorism that has taken place since Mohamed Morsi was removed from power on July 3.”

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5. And last, a really bizarre story on numerous Russian diplomats arrested for Medicaid fraud. An attempt to blacken their eye in retaliation for Syria?

From NBCNews  “Dozens of Russian diplomats and their spouses living and working in New York have been charged with defrauding the Medicaid system of about $1.5 million in benefits over a nine-year period, federal prosecutors say. 

A federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan says the alleged scheme by 49 diplomats and their spouses included submitting false applications for Medicaid benefits associated with medical costs for pregnancy, birth and young children, benefits they were not entitled to receive. The 18-month investigation by the FBI revealed a pattern of fraudulent Medicaid application submissions by the defendants, including under-reporting household income and false statements about the citizenship status of children in order to continue dependents’ health care coverage, prosecutors say. Court papers say 92 percent of the births to Russian diplomats and their spouses between 2004 and 2013 in New York City were paid for by Medicaid benefits. 

While collecting Medicaid benefits, prosecutors say the Russian diplomats and their spouses spent tens of thousands of dollars on luxury vacations as well as jewelry and clothing at Bloomingdale’s, Tiffany’s and other retailers. They also spent thousands of dollars online to buy merchandise including Apple products and concert tickets.”

11 of the 49 have diplomatic immunity.

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by

News/Politics 11-9-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Looks like we’re about to make a deal with the devil.

From TheTelegraph/UK  “America has proposed a short-term nuclear agreement with Iran  at a meeting in Geneva which would allow Tehran to continue enriching   uranium at low levels, according to an aide briefed on the talks. 

The goal is to freeze Iran’s nuclear programme for perhaps six months in order   to create a breathing space for a comprehensive agreement to be negotiated.”

“Mr Kerry will go to Geneva “in an effort to help narrow differences in   negotiations”, said a senior State Department official. 

But Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, warned on Thursday that   any deal which failed to stop Iran from enriching uranium would be a   “mistake of historic proportions”.”

And don’t think for a minute that this will stop Israel from doing what they think is necessary to protect themselves.

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Here’s something to keep in mind as the ObamaCare fiasco rolls on. Don’t forget, this is the home state of a certain community organizer turned politician. I imagine ObamaCare will operate in the same way when it comes to reigning in fraud.

From HotAir  “Remember Medicaid?  You know, the massive, costly federal healthcare program for America’s indigent?  Within the last few months, it’s been (a) exposed as an empirical failure by the most comprehensive study ever done, and (b) expanded hugely by Obamacare, natch.  Here’s how Medicaid is working in the Land of Lincoln.

The early findings of an ongoing review of the Illinois Medicaid program revealed that half the people enrolled weren’t even eligible. The state insisted it’s not that bad but Medicaid is on the federal government’s own list of programs at high risk of waste and abuse. Now, a review of the Illinois Medicaid program confirms massive waste and fraud. A review was ordered more than a year ago– because of concerns about waste and abuse. So far, the state says reviewers have examined roughly 712-thousand people enrolled in Medicaid, and found that 357-thousand, or about half of them shouldn’t have received benefits. After further review, the state decided that the percentage of people who didn’t qualify was actually about one out of four.

Not to fear, taxpayer-fleecing fraudsters, Big Labor has heroically filed a lawsuit to block the state from using private workers to purge ineligible recipients from the Medicaid rolls.  This thing may be tied up in court for awhile:”

I imagine they won’t be real concerned with making sure those getting subsidies deserve them either, and that the Medicaid fraud will grow nationwide as a result.

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Democrats are about to introduce more job-killing legislation. And everyone will pay higher prices across the board if they’re successful. Hopefully it’s DOA in the House.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “Senate Democrats, hoping to move beyond the disastrous rollout of the new health care law, plan to pivot to legislation that would increase the federal minimum wage by nearly $3, to over $10 an hour.

Democratic lawmakers met privately Thursday to discuss proposals, including one by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, a nearly 40 percent increase. It would also would tie wage levels to inflation.”

“Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called the proposed minimum wage increase “long overdue, an important economic issue and a message to working families struggling paycheck to paycheck that we can help.”

They’ll be struggling even more when they lose their job because of this.

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Louisiana is about to crack down on folks who took advantage of the EBT system shutdown last month.

From HotAir  “Last month, a malfunction in the EBT system used by Louisiana and 16 other states led to a “no-limit” food run on several a whole lot of stores in Louisiana, with over 12,000 transactions made during the malfunction being declined for lack of funds . Those who abused the system in places like the Walmart in Many, Louisiana, which chose to not enforce the emergency $50 per account limit that was supposed to be enforced during the malfunction, thought they were in the clear after Walmart and local police decided not to pursue charges:

The Many Police Department posted this week on its Facebook page: “Apparently after reviewing surveillance tapes and interviewing witnesses, Wal-Mart has no evidence of any theft, nor any other criminal activity during the October 12th disturbance at the store. With this information, the Many Police Department has closed the investigation at this time.”

They were wrong:

The Louisiana governor’s office said Wednesday night that it would strip food stamp benefits from anyone who took advantage of an EBT card malfunction that in some cases caused an all-out shopping frenzy in some stores across the state, The Advocate reported.”

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The unemployment rate has ticked back up to 7.3%. Mostly it’s fuzzy math. Once again, another nearly million Americans dropped out of the labor force last month.

From ZeroHedge  “First, the labor force participation rate, which plunged from 63.2% to 62.8% – the lowest since 1978!

But more importantly, the number of people not in the labor force exploded by nearly 1 million, or 932,000 to be exact, in just the month of October, to a record 91.5 million Americans! This was the third highest monthly increase in people falling out of the labor force in US history. “

Carteresque no?

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And this one demonstrates the fuzzy math at play here. Last month much was made about an unexpected increase of 691,000 full-time jobs. But this month we learn that 621,000 full-time jobs were lost. BLS numbers have become a useless joke.

Also from ZeroHedge  “So much for the surge in 691,000 full-time jobs in September. One short month later, indicating just what a farce the BLS’s sampling process is, while the algo frenzy-inducing establishment survey showed a gain of 204,000 workers, the household survey had some other ideas. True, the headline household survey number rose by an almost identical 213,000 workers, however it is when trying to foot that number into the actual components, when one gets a headache. Because according to the same survey, a whopping 623,000 full-time workers (supposedly government) lost their jobs in October, nearly offsetting the entire 691,000 gain the month before which it turns out was purely for Obamacare (now hopelessly damaged) optics.”

And part-time jobs showed a loss as well.

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