Finally a network has created a prime-time television show called
Whistleblower (on CBS) to expose
corrupt doctors. I want to congratulate
them because it finally takes it out of the newspapers and telecasts it across
the country for the public to see exactly what I have been saying in my blog
since 2009.
July 27, 2018 was the first broadcast about Dr. Fata – the
man I wrote about in my blog during 2014 – who had administered chemotherapy in
Michigan to patients who did not need it, and was sentenced to 45 years in
federal prison and fined $17,000,000 dollars.
On August 3, 2018, the second show aired – which exposed 3
doctors at Saint Joseph London Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. These 3 doctors performed surgical heart
procedures (like pace-makers and stints) when patients didn’t need them,
starting back in 2010 (the same time my blog was active on the internet). Dr. Michael Jones was the cardiologist who
worked at the same hospital and became alarmed in 2010 at the amount of new
patients he had that didn’t need the procedures they had complained about -
such as a 39 year old man who merely fainted on his job as a truck driver - and
the doctor at St. Joseph’s said he needed an immediate surgical procedure for a
pacemaker (which was billed to Medicaid), and that his father needed a stint
that cost between $12,000 - $15,000 (which was billed to Medicare) however the
doctor only received $1,500 as his fee.
Everything was for the hospital and not the individual doctor – just
like UCLA. It was an elderly
African-American woman who convinced Dr. Jones and his female partner to get an
attorney and file a Whistleblowers lawsuit with the Department of Justice
(which I never knew existed).
What I did not know when I contacted the Department of
Health and Human Services in January of 2011, was that in 2007 there was a new
department called the MEDICARE FRAUD STRIKE FORCE which the Department of
Justice and the HHS had created. As of
May, 2013, the overall strike force charged almost 1,900 defendants for
fraudulently billing Medicare for almost $6,000,000,000 dollars. It was this agency that referred MY case to
the California Department of Justice and Kamala Harris. They charged defendants in Miami, Tampa (like
my case), Houston and Los Angeles, which charged 8 individuals with $32,000,000
in claims for medically unnecessary services.
In 2014, 4 years after Dr. Jones discovered what was going
on, the Department of Justice decided to take his case and prosecute. They did not have a trial (as I suspect would
be the same with UCLA) unlike Dr. Fata who had his own clinics and not big
beautiful new hospitals like Saint Joseph London and UCLA Medical Center, but
they settled as follows:
1.
Saint Joseph London Hospital of Lexington,
Kentucky agreed to pay $16.5 million dollars in fines and have 5 years overseen
by the federal government.
2.
There were 175 victims who settled individually
with the hospital
3.
One doctor who performed surgery on the
African-American woman spent 2 years in federal prison and the other doctor is
awaiting sentencing this month up to 10 years in federal prison.
4.
Two other doctors not involved in the surgery
agreed to pay $380,000 in fines for fraudulent contracts
5.
Dr. Michael Jones and two other doctors split
$2,450,000 as their share in the settlement.
GUESS WHAT? Outside
of Saint Joseph’s London Hospital hung 2 big banners that read: U.S. NEWS AND
WORLD REPORT BEST HOSPITAL FOR 2017-2018 (Just like UCLA Medical Center does
every year with a full-page color ad in the Los Angeles Times saying “We’re No.
1” while Saint Joseph London was under the 5 year federal oversee).
That says it all.
U.S. News and World Report should have their license revoked for fraud!
