Dr. Trump’s Last Prescription: Pardon Florida Healthcare Fraudsters

On January 20th, before fleeing to Palm Beach (where his neighbors don’t want him) lame duck grifter Donald Trump granted clemency to fellow Floridians convicted of engaging in the Sunshine State’s flourishing industry, Medicare and Medicaid fraud:

Philip Esformes, a nursing home system operator convicted of a $1.3 Billion Medicare fraud, largest in the the nation’s history, won comutation of his 20-year prison sentence.

South Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen was serving a 17-year sentence for a $73 million Medicare fraud conviction, was pardoned by Mr. Trump, a Florida neighbor.

Also pardoned: Todd Farha, Thaddeus Bereday, William Kale, Paul Behrens, and Peter Clay, former executives of Florida’s WellCare Health Plans, were convicted of defrauding the state’s Medicaid program of over $35 million.

This should make him welcome in his new retirement home, a state represented by a Republican senator once involved in a $1.7 billion Medicare fraud.

More:

“The doctors Trump pardoned for defrauding the government,” Anjalee Khemlani, Yahoo Finance

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Florida: Biggest Health Care Fraud Ever

A Federal jury has found Florida health care network owner Philip Esformes guilty of running an 18-year, $1.3 billion Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme. He used some of the money to bribe the University of Pennsylvania basketball coach to get his son into Penn. If his son is pre-law, maybe the kid can help him with the fraud appeal.

Philip Esformes, a man of convictions. We reluctantly point out that this is the “largest health care fraud in U.S. history.” Every time we do that, some Florida Man is found pulling an even bigger scam.

More:

“Florida businessman convicted in $1B Medicare fraud case,” Adriana Gomez Licon, Associated Press

“Miami healthcare exec Philip Esformes found guilty of paying kickbacks and bribes,”Jay Weaver and David Ovalle, Miami Herald

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Florida’s Big Business: Medicare Fraud

The U.S. Department of Justice nabbed three conspirators and accused them of defrauding taxpayers of $1 billion through nursing services and assisted-living facilities in the Miami-Dade area. “The magnitude of alleged false claims in this scheme is staggering and outrageous, even by South Florida healthcare fraud standards,” said U.S. attorney Wifredo Ferrer, alluding to the Sunshine State’s major industry, Medicare fraud. The three were charged with conspiracy, money laundering and health care fraud, and two were also charged with obstructing justice.

Thank Florida’s governor, Tea Party Republican Rick Scott, for the expansion of the medical fraud industry. The state is so dirty-business-friendly it has attracted foreign investors from Russia and Nigeria.

More:

“Justice Department Charges Three in $1 Billion Medicare Fraud Scheme in Florida,” Kate O’Keeffe, Wall Street Journal

Related:

“Medicare Fraud Is Sweetest Crime in South Florida,” Chris Parker, New Times Broward/Palm Beach

“What’s the matter with Florida? Healthcare fraud flourishes despite enforcement efforts,” Lisa Schencker, Modern Healthcare

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Florida’s Growth Industry: Fraud

“Since the first settlers hacked their way into the mangrove tangles and drained much of the swampland, sunny South Florida has been virtually synonymous with shady deals and scams.

Over the past decade or so, the three most populous South Florida counties — Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach — have become less renowned for old-school ‘Miami Vice’-style drug shootouts than for scammers stealing hundreds of millions from the government, banks and individuals by using laptops, stolen identities and fake medical procedures.”

— “By nearly any measure, sunny South Florida is tops in fraud,” Curt Anderson, Associated Press

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GOP Health Insurance: Ryancare

Hey oldsters! You voted GOP? Congratulations, seniors, here’s what you get:

“. . . GOP congressional leaders are promising to act immediately on their budget-slashing ideas when 2015 begins. High on their list, according to the New York Times, is implementing Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to ‘overhaul’ Medicare by replacing it with ‘premium support’ vouchers designed to privatize the system over the coming decades. They will also form a commission to examine ‘options’ for Social Security, which Ryan has also long favored privatizing.”

 — “Get ready for Ryancare, America! Why GOP’s all set to end Medicare as we know it,” Joan Walsh, Salon

Related:

“Yes, the Republican Obamacare Strategy Will Kill People,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

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Mitt Romney’s ‘Death Panel’ Nostalgia

“Obamacare ‘puts in place an unelected board that’s going to tell people ultimately what kind of treatments they can have.’ Romney is reviving Sarah Palin’s old death panels lie here. Obamacare does establish an Independent Payment Advisory Board to help constrain the growth of Medicare spending. The body has no authority to dictate the practices of the private insurance marketplace. And the law also makes explicit that this body is banned from rationing care or limiting medical benefits to seniors.”

— from “The First Debate: Mitt Romney’s Five Biggest Lies,” Tim Dickenson, Rolling Stone
“The truth behind that $5 trillion tax cut, pre-existing conditions and more”

Read more actual, reality-based facts here.

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Mitt Romney: ‘Death Panels! Death Panels!’

“Just what to do with the nation’s healthcare system has been argued time and again – but it always seems to come back to the ‘death panels.’

Such was the case at the debate in Denver on Wednesday night, when moderator Jim Lehrer asked the candidates whether Obamacare, one of the most contentious issues this election season, should be repealed.

Ryan Tells His Medicare Plans to Oldsters. They Boo.

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan spoke to the national AARP convention on Friday about his plans to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. “The first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal Obamacare, because it represents the worst of both worlds,” he said. In response, the jolly gathering of grandparents booed the pompous little twerp. He went on to propose privatizing Medicare and giving seniors healthcare coupons. He was heckled by an audience old enough to remember the that same plan was pushed 12 years ago by another Republican financial genius, George W. Bush. You know, the GOP MBA President who crashed the world economy. Hey, Paul Ryan’s running mate is a Harvard MBA too!

Healthcare Reform on a Postcard

The Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act yesterday. So what does that mean to you?

— No more lifetime coverage limits on your insurance.

— Annual insurance benefit caps eliminated by 2014.

— No more preexisting condition exclusion for kids.

— Adults with preexisting conditions get help finding coverage; after 2014, all insurers will have to cover everyone.

— Insurance companies can’t drop you when you get sick.

— Kids can stay on thier parents’ insurance until age 26.

 — Seniors get help with that “doughnut hole” in their prescription drug coverage.

— No more co-pays for preventative services in Medicare, and a free annual doctor visit to plan prevention.

— Small businesses get tax credits — up to 50 percent of premium costs—for offering workers health insurance.

— Insurers with excessive administrative costs must give rebates to customers, and all insurance companies must disclose overhead spending.

— Free birth control and other preventative services for women, unless they work for a faith-based organization that opposes it.

“10 Things You Get Now That Obamacare Survived,” Andy Kroll and Nick Baumann, Mother Jones

Want a second opinion? Take your pick:

Newt Gingrich, Advance Directive Advocate

 

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich defended former Governor Sarah Palin’s “Death Panel” claims  on TV last weekend. Yet just like Mrs. Palin, Mr. Gingrich has advocated advanced care directives, especially their adoption by entire healthcare communities. And unlike Mrs. Palin, his reasons for doing so were economic.

 As reporter Matt Taibbi points out, Mr. Gingrich has long been a vociferous proponent of advance planning for end-of-life care. As recently as July, Newt Gingrich wrote in the Washington Post: