Dec 24, 2009 | 2 Comments
Case Synopsis
First Visit
In July 1998, Gabriel walked into a doctor’s office and complained of a headache and stomach ache. He was asked to complete a questionnaire, then was shown into an exam room, where the nurse told him that the doctor would be right with him. After a short wait, a man walked into the exam room and introduced himself as Jorge Torres. He proceeded to take Gabriel’s history, perform a physical exam, and said that he could find nothing wrong with Gabriel. He explained to Gabriel about the possible reasons for his symptoms, discussing with Gabriel about the possibilities of an anemia test, CT scan, or electrocardiogram. With nothing left to do, he told Gabriel to continue taking Tylenol, eat properly, and begin taking vitamin supplements.
With orders to return to the office if symptoms worsened, Gabriel paid his $30 for the doctor’s visit and left.
NEWS STORY Dec 21, 2009
Those of you following the story we posted last week Thursday will be interested to know that Dr. Earl Bradley, the pediatrician accused of raping a 2-year-old, is now facing a total of 26 charges, including first- and second-degree rape and sexual exploitation of a child. Dr. Bradley turned himself in to investigators on Friday morning (he was released on bail Thursday).
As a note to readers, the following gets pretty disturbing.
These new charges stemmed from a review of seized medical records and equipment from Bradley’s office. Apparently, the suspect recorded the assaults (or at least some of them) on video. These videos depict rapes of an infant as young as 3-6 months to a girl as old as 12 or 13 years. According to court records describing the videos, the victims resisted, cried, screamed, and even attempted to run away. The videos also showed that Bradley yell at them when they resisted as he physically forced himself on to these children.
Bail was set at $2.9 million. In lieu of bail, Bradley is being held at the Sussex Correctional Institution awaiting trial.
This is an update of a previous news story: Pediatrician Accused of Raping Toddler.
NEWS STORY Dec 17, 2009
After a year’s worth of investigation, Delaware officials on Wednesday arrested and charged a pediatrician from Lewes, DE, of raping a 2-year-old girl. Dr. Earl Bradley, 56, was accused of three different sex-related felonies, including second-degree rape, towards one of his toddler patients. Since 2001, Dr. Bradley has worked out of his office, BayBees Pediatrics, where the alleged crime occurred.
Investigation into Dr. Bradley began with complaints to state police about a year ago. At least 2 other children’s parents had complained to the state police regarding Dr. Bradley. However, authorities did not have enough evidence to make an arrest until recently, when the parents of the 2-year-old child reported to the police that their child complained about Dr. Bradley touching her inappropriately during a two separate office visits.
Dr. Bradley had a special room in his practice where he brought children to pick candies or toys after appointments. So, the parents had no reason to suspect him of anything when he carried the toddler out of the examination room to get some candy. After leaving the office, the child said she had been hurt by the doctor while getting candy. As it was the second time something similar had happened, the parents promptly informed the police.
He was released on a $36,000 bail today with the stipulation to cease all contact with anyone under 18. Pleas will be heard next Wednesday, Dec. 23.
NEWS STORY Dec 15, 2009
Earlier today, 32 people from Miami, Brooklyn, and Detroit were charged with defrauding Medicare. According to officials, this represented at least 4 separate white-collar crime rings totaling more than $61 million in fraudulent claims. Included in the largest case, in Miami, was Dr. Fred Dweck, 74, the only medical doctor named so far.
Dr. Dweck was the director of Courtesy Medical Group in Miami. Amongst the 14 others were owners of clinic and registered nurses. They are accused of falsely billing Medicare out of more than $40 million by listing patients as blind diabetics, billing Medicare for expensive in-home services that were not needed (or even done).
For many, this should come as no surprise. Miami-Dade is the hotbed of Medicare fraud in the country, centering on pay-outs for diabetes. While it receives more Medicare payments to diabetes patients than the rest of the country put together, Miami-Dade is home to only 2% of the nation’s diabetics eligible for the program.
Another Miami-Dade case involved operators of an HIV-infusion clinic. Those arrested in Detroit were said to have paid special recruiters to find patients that were willing to fake symptoms so that Medicare could be billed for expensive tests. Perhaps most interesting is a mother and son team that was arrested and charged with billing Medicare for expensive shoe inserts made for diabetics — even though what they were actually selling were a much cheaper kind.
These are the latest crackdowns as part of a larger effort in the past two years by the Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services to curtail and stop medical fraud in the United States.
“Medicare fraud is not a victimless crime,” says Lanny Breuer, who is an assistant attorney general. “It hurts every American taxpayer by raising the cost of health care.”
NEWS STORY Dec 10, 2009
Dr. Saji Francis, an Internal Medicine doctor in Massapequa, NY, has been arrested and is charged with 9 counts of selling prescription oxycodone and other narcotics. Some of his “patients” included students from the local high school.
According to police, Francis was receiving between $480 to $600 for a 90-pill prescription of oxycodone, Vicodin, and other medications.
Lawrence Mulvey, Police Commissioner of Nassau County, said “Dr. Saji Francis is the antithesis of the Hippocratic oath, to do no harm.”
“His greed and total disregard for the ethics of the medical profession has exacerbated the opiate and heroin abuse in Massapequa.”
Francis pleaded not guilty and was later released after posting $180,000 bond or $90,000 cash. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Francis received his board certification in Internal Medicine in 1997. His medical school training was in the University of Calicut in India. He is the father of 5 children.
Here’s a video:
Dec 09, 2009 | 3 Comments
Case Synopsis
The Parked Car
It was just an anonymous tip. And the car seemed quite ordinarily, parked in the back lot of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Irvine, CA. Wait, the car’s unlocked. Slowly the police opened the door to the vehicle. It’s a hot one!
In a bag there was a Baikal Makarov .380 caliber semi-automatic handgun, three magazine clips, and 31 .380 caliber rounds of ammunition. In another bag there was a Makarov 1J80-18AM .380 caliber semi-automatic with two magazine clips and 22 rounds of ammunition. The rest of the contents of the car yielded a bayonet serrated double edge knife, and stashed away was a Bulgaria “Arsenal” 7.62 × 39 rifle with one round in chamber and a fully loaded banana magazine clip.
Oddly, there was also an aluminum baseball bat and a body armor helmet.
Searching further the inside the car, the police came upon numerous rounds of ammunition and over 300 medication tablets. These medications included Prozac, Atenolol, Buspirone Hydrochloride, Paxil, Buspar, Ambien, Remeron, and Zoloft. Mind you, this was just inside the passenger compartment.
Popping the trunk, there were nearly 500 more medications. In addition to some of the name brands already mentioned, there were also Wellbutrin, Serzone, Effexor, and Accupril.
The Mysterious Owner
Where was the owner of the car? Inside attending a health class put on by the University of California, Irvine. We’ll call him Dr. Rambo.
NEWS STORY Dec 08, 2009
As countries around the world grapple with the rising cost of health care and shortage of hospital beds, it is hard to ignore an interesting piece of data:
“Our data show that nearly one in five patients who leave the hospital today will be re-admitted within the next month, and that more than three-quarters of these re-admissions are potentially preventable,” said Acting Administrator Charlene Frizzera of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaide Services (CMS).
That’s what prompted CMS to announce a pilot program called The Care Transitions Project back in April 13, 2009 to work to eliminate unnecessary hospital readmissions.
“Rather than focusing on one global problem and trying to apply a one-size-fits-all solution across the country, Care Transitions experts will look in their own backyards to learn why hospital re-admissions occur locally and how patients transition between health care settings,” said Dr. Barry Straube, Chief Medical Officer for CMS.
One of the 15 pilot sites launched by CMS was the Baton Rouge, La area. At that project, health coaches are sent to five area hospitals, working with high-risk patients as they are being discharged. These coaches, usually nurses, help coordinate a post-discharge plan which includes follow-up doctor visits and medication prescriptions.
DeeAnn Broussard with the Lousiana Health Care Review says that often, seniors backslide because they are not able to get a timely doctor’s appointment or lack the transportation to pick up medications.
Over the next month after discharge, the patients are checked up on by the health coaches to help address issues before the patient’s health condition worsens. If a problem needs attention, they help the patient get seen by a doctor quickly, instead of being scheduled many weeks out. Even something as simple as changing the dosage on a medication can help prevent hospital readmissions.
Before implementation of the program, the Baton Rouge area had a 30-day readmission rate of 18.8 percent among Medicare patients.
Targeting seniors older than 65 years old who have been hospitalized for congestive heart failure, heart attack, or pneumonia, approximately 145 patients have participated in the project from March to October. Readmission rate fell to less than 5 percent–just 7 patients.
