Francine and Rhea Did the Right Thing
November 10, 2006 by bob
As part of a 1998 settlement, Francine Mettevelis and Rhea Jones received $903,899 for reporting that Charter Behavioral Health Systems, in Orlando, Florida, billed Medicare for medically unnecessary psychiatric care for elderly patients with severe dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease and other organic brain disorders.
Medicare fraud, where doctors, HMO’s, or hospitals create frauludent items on patient invoices and submit them to Medicare for reimbursement, is a growing problem, and contributes to the enormous and rising costs of health care in this country. It is important for patients, family, and friends of people who use these services to report cases of suspected fraud.
If you’ve witnessed Medicare fraud in your workplace, you may be able to receive up to one-third of the money recovered in the fraud case under the Federal False Claims Act. And, you can sleep soundly at night, knowing that you did the right thing, and that you are helping lower health care costs for everyone by reporting the fraud to the people.
We can help you if you’ve witnessed this type of activity - contact us to receive information about what you can do to help stop these abuses.
Anonymous Hero Gets Fair Share Of $140 Million
November 5, 2006 by bob
As part of a $140 million civil settlement with Health Care Service Corporation, a private plaintiff was paid more than $21 million for exposing that this Medicare carrier had submitted false information to the Health Care Financing Administration, failed to process claims in accordance with HCFA’s guidelines, and failed to process correspondence and reviews in a timely manner.
This private plaintiff, who preferred to remain anonymous through what must have been a very lengthy and stressful ordeal, helped stop these abuses of the health care system, saving U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars. And, because the Federal False Claims Act stipulates that whistleblowers who catch large companies or individuals red-handed in the act of defrauding the government should be rewarded by up to 30% of the total amount awarded, this anonymous hero walked away with over twenty million dollars.
Diebold Electronic Voting Machines Under Widespread Scrutiny
September 22, 2006 by bob
In an investigative report filed for the October 5th issue of Rolling Stone Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reports on the burgeoning body of research and public outcry surrounding Diebold’s touch-screen voting machines and their implementation in voting precincts across the country.
Kennedy interviews a former Diebold consultant who implicates Diebold in hijacking the electoral process in Georgia during the 2002 presidential election and a last-minute “patch” to the software running on the voting machines.
Read more
Lockheed Whistleblower Takes His Case To YouTube
September 15, 2006 by bob
via The Washington Post:
Michael De Kort was frustrated.
The 41-year-old Lockheed Martin engineer had complained to his bosses. He had told his story to government investigators. He had called congressmen.
But when no one seemed to be stepping up to correct what he saw as critical security flaws in a fleet of refurbished Coast Guard patrol boats, De Kort did just about the only thing left he could think of to get action: He made a video and posted it on YouTube.com.
[article continues below video]
“What I am going to tell you is going to seem preposterous,” De Kort solemnly tells viewers near the outset of the 10-minute clip. Posted three weeks ago, the video describes what De Kort says are blind spots in the ship’s security cameras, equipment that malfunctions in cold weather and other problems. “It may be very hard for you to believe that our government and the largest defense contractor in the world [are] capable of such alarming incompetence and can make ethical compromises as glaring as what I am going to describe.” In response to De Kort’s charges, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said the service has “taken the appropriate level of action.” A spokeswoman for the contractors said the allegations were without merit.
