Largest medical fraud case in US history
07-14-2017, 11:35 AM
#1
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: south eastern PA
Posts: 14,301
Largest medical fraud case in US history
American Patriot
'Largest medical fraud takedown in American history': More than 400 doctors, nurses and pharmacists are arrested for health care and opioid scams worth $1.3bn in false billing
US attorneys announce they will prosecute over 400 in medical fraud case
Attorney General Jeff Sessions calls the action the 'largest medical fraud takedown in American history'
More than 52,000 Americans died of overdoses in 2015
Nearly 300 health care providers are being suspended or banned from participating in federal health care programs
By ASSOCIATED PRESS and DANIEL ROTH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:10 EDT, 13 July 2017 | UPDATED: 10:29 EDT, 14 July 2017
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Thursday that federal prosecutors have charged more than 400 people in taking part in medical fraud and opioid scams that totaled $1.3 billion in fraudulent billing.
Sessions said that 412 individuals will be prosecuted by his office in what he called the 'largest health care fraud takedown operation in American history' during a press conference in Washington.
Sessions noted that the case involves doctors, nurses and pharmacists that 'have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients.'
Among those charged are six Michigan doctors accused of a scheme to prescribe unnecessary opioids. A Florida rehab facility is alleged to have recruited addicts with gift cards and visits to strip clubs, leading to $58 million in false treatments and tests.
Officials said those charged in the schemes include more than 120 people involved in illegally prescribing and distributing narcotic painkillers.
Such prescription opioids are behind the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in US history.
More than 52,000 Americans died of overdoses in 2015 - a record - and experts believe the numbers have continued to rise.
'In some cases, we had addicts packed into standing-room-only waiting rooms waiting for these prescriptions,' acting FBI director Andrew McCabe said. 'They are a death sentence, plain and simple.'
HOW DO OPIOID SCAMS WORK?
The opioid crisis - which led to the deaths of 59,000 Americans in 2016 - was spearheaded by pharmaceutical companies that manufacture highly addictive drugs.
These companies managed to convince physicians and other pharmacists that they had created drugs – such as Oxycontin and Vicodin – which could treat pain but were not addictive. These doctors then overprescribed the medications to the poor and elderly and billed the federal government.
They targeted hospitals in disadvantages areas, perhaps on the hope that the less educated were more likely to take their doctor's word for it. According to the Center for Disease Control, whites earning between $20,000 and $50,000 were the most affected.
They also conducted self-seeking research projects in order to distribute inaccurate data to doctors and researchers.
These companies didn't stop there. The masterminds paid representatives who helped them increase their sales. In West Virginia alone, they sold 780,000,000 hydrocodone and oxycodone pills between 2007 and 2012.
One of such companies was Purdue, a company that has earned $35 billion dollars from Oxycontin alone. The pharmaceutical company's owners, the Sackler family, made a net worth of $14 billion at the end of 2015.
While there are rules which require drug distributors and pharmacists to report abnormal orders of controlled medications, regulators didn't detect this loophole in their system.
In fact, this opioid scam, which has been in effect for at least ten years, didn't come to light until disadvantaged and middle class whites began dying in their numbers.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz4mpuBtncf
'Largest medical fraud takedown in American history': More than 400 doctors, nurses and pharmacists are arrested for health care and opioid scams worth $1.3bn in false billing
US attorneys announce they will prosecute over 400 in medical fraud case
Attorney General Jeff Sessions calls the action the 'largest medical fraud takedown in American history'
More than 52,000 Americans died of overdoses in 2015
Nearly 300 health care providers are being suspended or banned from participating in federal health care programs
By ASSOCIATED PRESS and DANIEL ROTH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:10 EDT, 13 July 2017 | UPDATED: 10:29 EDT, 14 July 2017
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Thursday that federal prosecutors have charged more than 400 people in taking part in medical fraud and opioid scams that totaled $1.3 billion in fraudulent billing.
Sessions said that 412 individuals will be prosecuted by his office in what he called the 'largest health care fraud takedown operation in American history' during a press conference in Washington.
Sessions noted that the case involves doctors, nurses and pharmacists that 'have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients.'
Among those charged are six Michigan doctors accused of a scheme to prescribe unnecessary opioids. A Florida rehab facility is alleged to have recruited addicts with gift cards and visits to strip clubs, leading to $58 million in false treatments and tests.
Officials said those charged in the schemes include more than 120 people involved in illegally prescribing and distributing narcotic painkillers.
Such prescription opioids are behind the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in US history.
More than 52,000 Americans died of overdoses in 2015 - a record - and experts believe the numbers have continued to rise.
'In some cases, we had addicts packed into standing-room-only waiting rooms waiting for these prescriptions,' acting FBI director Andrew McCabe said. 'They are a death sentence, plain and simple.'
HOW DO OPIOID SCAMS WORK?
The opioid crisis - which led to the deaths of 59,000 Americans in 2016 - was spearheaded by pharmaceutical companies that manufacture highly addictive drugs.
These companies managed to convince physicians and other pharmacists that they had created drugs – such as Oxycontin and Vicodin – which could treat pain but were not addictive. These doctors then overprescribed the medications to the poor and elderly and billed the federal government.
They targeted hospitals in disadvantages areas, perhaps on the hope that the less educated were more likely to take their doctor's word for it. According to the Center for Disease Control, whites earning between $20,000 and $50,000 were the most affected.
They also conducted self-seeking research projects in order to distribute inaccurate data to doctors and researchers.
These companies didn't stop there. The masterminds paid representatives who helped them increase their sales. In West Virginia alone, they sold 780,000,000 hydrocodone and oxycodone pills between 2007 and 2012.
One of such companies was Purdue, a company that has earned $35 billion dollars from Oxycontin alone. The pharmaceutical company's owners, the Sackler family, made a net worth of $14 billion at the end of 2015.
While there are rules which require drug distributors and pharmacists to report abnormal orders of controlled medications, regulators didn't detect this loophole in their system.
In fact, this opioid scam, which has been in effect for at least ten years, didn't come to light until disadvantaged and middle class whites began dying in their numbers.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz4mpuBtncf
07-14-2017, 06:01 PM
#3
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Chatham, Ohio
Posts: 8,834
Doctors are rated on press-ganey scores. Which are handed out randomly to patients. No doctor wants negative reviews, therefore, many will prescribe pain medications even if they dont technically need too (How do you know if someone truly has severe pain?).
Abuse of this system over the years has led us to where we are today.
I work as a paramedic and i could tell you unbelievable stories about drug addiction. Its alot worse than the news even knows about. And it doesnt know class, race, age or social standing. Though mid 20s white males/females are the majority that i see in my area.
Abuse of this system over the years has led us to where we are today.
I work as a paramedic and i could tell you unbelievable stories about drug addiction. Its alot worse than the news even knows about. And it doesnt know class, race, age or social standing. Though mid 20s white males/females are the majority that i see in my area.
07-14-2017, 07:53 PM
#4
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 37,739
Abuse of this governmentsystem over the years has led us to where we are today.
07-15-2017, 06:55 AM
#5
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Allegan, MI
Posts: 8,019
Originally Posted by Fieldmouse
fixed this for you. It's not that the private sector doesn't get scammed its that they not only learn from their scam but share the information. They must earn their money, well before Obamacare, and earn their customers.
07-15-2017, 12:09 PM
#6
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Comance county, OK
Posts: 11,381
Nearly every time someone has a root canal or minor operation he/she is offered a prescription for painkillers. The stuff is handed out like candy.
i know a paramedic who has saved dozens of overdose cases by administering naloxone (Narcan). Some have been resuscitated three or four times.
Congress refuses to do anything. They are in the pockets of the drug companies. The drug companies want to sell pain killers by the boxcar load.
This Oklahoma "pain" doctor is charged by the OK AG with five counts of murder:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.144bc5a7f4c3
i know a paramedic who has saved dozens of overdose cases by administering naloxone (Narcan). Some have been resuscitated three or four times.
Congress refuses to do anything. They are in the pockets of the drug companies. The drug companies want to sell pain killers by the boxcar load.
This Oklahoma "pain" doctor is charged by the OK AG with five counts of murder:
“Nichols prescribed patients, who entrusted their well-being to her, a horrifyingly excessive amount of opioid medications,” Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter told the Associated Press on Friday as his office announced the doctor's arrest. “Nichols’s blatant disregard for the lives of her patients is unconscionable.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.144bc5a7f4c3
07-15-2017, 12:59 PM
#7
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: south eastern PA
Posts: 14,301
I for one am not in favor of the expense to tax payers to pay for Narcan to be in the vehicles of police and rescue personnel. Why should tax payers pay to save idiots who are stupid enough to take opioids to get high especially when these idiots have been saved 4 or 5 times. It is apparent they want to die, just let them die. Tax payers money should not be spent to save the lives of those who bring their death on themselves!
07-15-2017, 01:38 PM
#8
Typical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 806
In some ways I'm in agreement with you on that Oldtimr and in others I'm not. After one of my injuries I was prescribed Oxy for after surgery. To say those are addictive is about as big of an understatement as saying you need to breathe to live. I was on them under a doctors orders for 2 weeks. It took my dad and both brothers to hold me down one time when going through detox. Broke 2 of my dads ribs trying to get away. Now getting me to even take an aspirin is near impossible. It's not always the addicts fault. Some of these drugs literally change your brain chemistry so it isn't just a mental addiction, just wanting to get high as you say, but it is a pure physical addiction that takes a lot to get over.
