There are few felons who can top the pain caused by so many victims as Dr. Farid Fata, who is facing a demand by prosecutors for a 175-year sentence for sending hundreds of healthy patients into unnecessary cancer treatments.
Some 553 patients were given the unnecessary cancer treatments to 553 patients before Fata was arrested in 2013. He was accused of $35 million in Medicare fraud. He pleaded guilty in the fall to fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges.
Absent the plea, some of the cases might have produced some challenging evidentiary burdens. Some of the patients had cancer but were over treated while some received the wrong treatment for their type of cancer. Those could be defended as malpractice but not fraud. However, there appeared to be enough evidence of knowing fraud to force Fata to throw in the towel on trial.
The trial itself would have allowed patients to recount how they suffered organ damage as a result of unnecessary treatment. Moreover, these victims had to tell their loved ones that they had cancer and prepare their families for their possible deaths. One man lost a testicle and came close to kidney failure due to the unnecessary treatment.
What most concerns me are accounts of people complaining as early as 2010 with no action taken to shutdown this doctor.
In the meantime, the defense counsel is seeking a limit on victim’s statements for sentencing — a difficult proposition for a court in cutting off the right of victims to speak about their loss and pain.
Another interesting aspect of this case is how to handle the civil liability. He presumably had insurance coverage but the sheer number of cases presents a daunting problem for courts. This would seem a good case for special management like a mass tort situation where a court can administer the claims while reducing the litigation costs. Since liability is obvious, it would be unfair to see these victims paying either full contingency fees or high hourly rates for victims of 30 percent or more. Ideally, these claims can be administered through a single court. However, the insurance company may wish to contest some cases as properly diagnosed. That could lead to litigation in those marginal cases.
Illegal aliens using forged social security account cards, and the numbers of living citizens, results in a case of identity theft against each legitimate account holder. A significantly large number of the account numbers used are for living victims.
The unauthorized use of a living person’s SSA number often can result in denial of benefits to the victim. Examples include the loss of employment benefits, social security disability or retirement payments due to the false appearance the victim has worked or worked beyond a permitted maximum. It is usually the victim that must instigate the action to recover their benefits.
Moreover, the usage permits the opportunity for the illegal user to obtain credit and divert financial profit on the back of the victim and then abscond from the obligation, leaving the victim to perform a very time consuming and often expensive restoration of the credit and identity provenance.
Of course some politicians will argue that this benefits the social security system by providing windfalls of money to account for what actuaries predict will be significant shortfalls of reserves in the future, it would be certainly better if these same politicians performed their jobs to make the social security system solvent. But they don’t and as a result the individual citizen is collectively forced to bear the burden of having their identity stolen.
This is not a proper solution to managing the system.
Darren Smith – I have a friend who has been declared dead by SSA, even though she is very much alive, because the person using her SSA number died. She is having a hell of a time being resurrected.
Sqeeky
I already stipulated that emergency care and maternity care were provided. Deal with it.
Let me know when you find that 50% of Americans prefer to have mothers giving birth on the street and those in life or death situations kicked out of the ER. I don’t think we are there yet.
The government does a good job providing websites that clearly lay out eligibility requirements. There is no reason in the world that those sites should not be used. Deal with it.
“Of those, he estimates that about 3.1 million are using fake or expired social security numbers, yet also paying automatic payroll taxes. Goss believes that these workers pay an annual net contribution of $12 billion to the Social Security Trust Fund.”
Which means, that YES they have fake IDs. And if SS is taken automatically from their paychecks, it is either:
1. Being withheld by their employer, who does NOT pass it on to the IRS;
2. Is matched by their employer and passed on to the IRS.
Option 2 means that Employers are paying just as much for their share of SS as the Illegals, and therefore one could just as well say that it is the Employers which are keeping SS propped up. Let’s see, about 8% cost for the Illegal, or 80 cents out of every $10. Sooo, pay the Mexican $7.50 per hour, instead of $10 to a legal employee, and save $2.50 gross on the $10.. Deduct the 80 cents from the $2.50, and the employer is still $1.70 per hour ahead for each illegal he hires.
Hmmm. Meanwhile, the unemployed American sucks up all kinds of benefits. Wonder how that affects the economy??? I am just sooo amazed at people who can not think!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
https://news.vice.com/article/unauthorized-immigrants-paid-100-billion-into-social-security-over-last-decade
“Unauthorized workers are paying an estimated $13 billion a year in social security taxes and only getting around $1 billion back, according to a senior government statistician.
Stephen Goss, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration (SSA), told VICE News that an estimated 7 million people are currently working in the US illegally. Of those, he estimates that about 3.1 million are using fake or expired social security numbers, yet also paying automatic payroll taxes. Goss believes that these workers pay an annual net contribution of $12 billion to the Social Security Trust Fund.
The SSA estimates that unauthorized workers have paid a whopping $100 billion into the fund over the past decade. Yet as these people are in the US illegally, it is unlikely that they will be able to benefit from their contributions later in life.”
And how does one pay into the SS system WITHOUT a phony SS card??? Oh, and with that same phony SS card, they can get medicaid, and register to vote, —OH, and take a job from an unskilled Black person! Which sens that unemployed Black person onto the Welfare roles!
Oh, thinking is sooo hard for some people!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
“Undocumented immigrants do not qualify for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, and most other public benefits. Most of these programs require proof of legal immigration status and under the 1996 welfare law, even legal immigrants cannot receive these benefits until they have been in the United States for more than five years.
Non-citizen immigrant adults and children are about 25% less likely to be signed up for Medicaid than their poor native-born equivalents and are also 37% less likely to receive food stamps, according to a 2013 study by the Cato Institute.”
http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/20/news/economy/immigration-myths/
5 immigration myths debunked.
“The truth is that undocumented immigrants contribute more in payroll taxes than they will ever consume in public benefits. Take Social Security. According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), unauthorized immigrants — who are not eligible to receive Social Security benefits — have paid an eye-popping $100 billion into the fund over the past decade.
They are paying an estimated $15 billion a year into Social Security with no intention of ever collecting benefits,” Stephen Goss, chief actuary of the SSA told CNNMoney. “Without the estimated 3.1 million undocumented immigrants paying into the system, Social Security would have entered persistent shortfall of tax revenue to cover payouts starting in 2009,” he said. Without immigrants, the Social Security Board of Trustees projects that the system will no longer be able to pay the full promised benefits by 2037.”
@Doctoryes,
And as far as your, “But,but, but, I don’t like that source” — deal with it!
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-42-percent-of-new-medicaid-signups-are-immigrants-their-children/article/2556114
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@Doctoryes
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/how-undocumented-immigrants-sometimes-receive-medicaid-treatment/
Note the problem that people have being able to determine who is “illegal”:
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Anyone who disputes my position on what healthcare is provided to illegal immigrants will kindly provide a link from the LA Times or a United States government web site that says that illegals are legally receiving healthcare benefits from the United States government or California. Medicaid does provide emergency care and maternity (delivery only?).
Breitbart, Daily Caller, Washington Times, Washington Examiner citations are not accepted.
Subsidies for healthcare in California have been proposed. They are not policy until they are signed by the governor and the United States government has granted the state a waiver. Until then, your ‘facts’ are right wing fables.
doctoryes – you do NOT get to pick what will be cited. You cannot get much further left politically than the L.A. Times.
Unbelievable amount of misinformation being printed here.
Illegal immigrants are not eligible for Medicare benefits.
Illegal immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid except for emergency care.
Think many Americans will soon be flying to India for healthcare services? Pure fantasy. Middle class people cannot afford the airfare, families do not want to be separated, Americans fear the ‘foreign’, Americans want follow-up care from the same physician. There is a market for healthcare tourists. It is very, very small.
A two-tier system? Americans will scream bloody murder. The Daily Mail will be running hourly stories about the 6 year old cancer patient who gets second tier care or denied a liver transplant. A two-tier system will be the VA scandals times 1000 – 24/7, 364 days a year.
DBQ:
Talking about illegal aliens getting benefits:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/08/fraud-crackdown-sends-illegal-immigrant-licenses-plummeting-in-nm/
New Mexico was one of the first states to issue drivers licenses to illegal aliens, to combat the rising tide of uninsured illegal drivers wrecking havoc. The result is that there became a booming black market business of selling drivers licenses to illegal aliens who lived out of state by using false documents. Plus, the effect on public safety has been inconclusive.
How pervasive was this identity fraud ring? After the state cracked down on document fraud, license applications for illegal aliens dropped by 70%. That sure is a high percentage of illegal aliens breaking the law . . . again.
Plus, this policy is non compliant with federal ID regulations, so such licenses will not get you into a federal building or on a plane due to the restrictions of the REAL ID Act.
Then there is the terrible scandal of CA offering Obamacare to illegal aliens, which Obama swore so faithfully would not happen.
“I’ve also witnessed the painful and continual shifting of medical costs onto my patients’ shoulders through rising co-payments, deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses.”
Right. All of which have skyrocketed under Obamacare, hence my consistent complaints about the very real financial burden of Obamacare. I have also remarked how Obamacare has forced a great many insurers out of the CA Exchange completely, leaving what is close to, if not technically, monopolies.
And to add insult to injury to American consumers, Obamacare mandates pediatric dental insurance, which is linked to medical deductibles. My own is $6,000, and I could not find anything lower in the CA Exchange.
Insurance companies were riddled with problems before. Now they are far worse.
As I’ve remarked earlier, doctors are shutting their doors, not accepting insurance at all, or operating on a factory high throughput model. Doctors hate how Obamacare has affected their practice. It’s pretty sad if doctors become ex-pats just to escape our worsening system.
ninian, In the US, plaintiff’s attorneys made BILLIONS of dollars on tobacco legislation. State Attorneys General gave the litigation to connected plaintiff’s attorneys in their state. They took their 25-33%! A Texas barrister made over $2 billion himself. Are you getting the picture as to who runs things on this side of the pond? In Wisconsin, the biggest plaintiff’s firm, Habush and Rottier lobbied early and hard and made ~$800 million IIRC. My stalker will fact check it.
Nick Spinelli:
Yes I do understand. This is why on the other blog on the subject of freedom and democracy I was arguing that the United States was controlled by an unelected elite.
The power of money is alarming. It always has been. But the tail must not wag the dog and all you have to do is vote for the right thing.
You must be true to your ideals. Make Freedom Liberty and Democracy a reality.
I told a story of a lawyer coming to see me about this and his statement that not one cent would be paid despite court rulings. At least that’s what he believed at the time.
All I can say is this is not the end game. Men and Women of high quality will prevail to lead the country. You must not give in.
The danger is that many think you’ve already got there already.
That’s what worries me… and a lot of other people.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-promotes-health-care-payments-based-on-outcome-not-volume-1427303546
Obama promotes health care payments that are based on outcomes, not volume.
“WASHINGTON—Paying doctors, hospitals and other providers for improved care rather than treatment volume will benefit patients and lower U.S. health-care spending, President Barack Obama said Wednesday.
For Medicare, the goal is to make half its payments to providers based on the quality of care they provide, rather than quantity, by the end of 2018. That marks a historic change for the federally administrated program that provides insurance for Americans age 65 and older.
“We don’t want the incentives to be skewed so that providers feel obliged to do more tests. We want them to do the right tests,” Mr. Obama said. “We want them perhaps to invest some money on the front end to prevent disease and not just on the back end to treat disease.””
Those people who haven’t taken care of their health such as those with diabetes, smokers, those who take crazy risks, have helped drive up healthcare costs and should pay more for their insurance as a consequence.
Agreed. This is what it used to be like as well. The insurance companies would charge you more based on your risk factors….or not insure you at all if it appeared that your bad health would “break the bank” and make it impossible to pay the claims for everyone else.
Life insurance is also rated. You can be completely denied…..but you can also be insured. However as you age, the more you weigh, if you are a smoker and the higher your risk of dying ….the higher your premiums.
The insurance companies and you are entering into a bet. A contract but still a bet. You are betting that you will die or have an accident or your house will burn down so you pay the premiums so if it happens while you are in the contract, you get paid back MORE than you bet. The insurance company is taking your premiums but also betting that you won’t have a heart attack, burn the house, or die….while the contract is in force.
Why do you think the insurance companies push term insurance so highly? It is cheap for the young. Generally the young don’t die. When the term expires the premiums go sky high and the people don’t insure any more. Win win for the insurance company. It is so hard to get young people to understand that if they paid for a permanent policy it would cost more NOW while they are young, but when they get older…they will be really happy they did it.
The reality is that most people don’t have an event to pay out. They either don’t need the insurance during the term/contract…..or they let their policy cancel at some point and all the money they bet…goes to the insurance company.
Risk. Reward. You place your bets you takes your chances.
Great substantive comment, DBQ.
Those people who haven’t taken care of their health such as those with diabetes, smokers, those who take crazy risks, have helped drive up healthcare costs and should pay more for their insurance as a consequence. Why should people who have illnesses and conditions through no fault of their own bear the weight of these deadbeat patients?
To I.Annie
Canada introduced a litigation programme to recoup the cost of health care from the tobacco industry.
I extrapolated this model to the UK and included the alcohol industry and calculated that we could recoup £420bn which is enough to run every hospital in England for 8 years.
I sent it to the British Medical Journal and the deputy editor liked it wanted to publish it but couldn’t get anyone to agree to publish it. I suggested the Chancellor of the Exchequer which didn’t go do very well.
One MP said it was a matter of choice to drink and smoke but I argued that in alcohol and smoking abuse ie addiction there is no free will and therefore rights were not strictly affected.
So I never got the paper published and MPs with business interests in these industries continue to exploit the vulnerable and the cost is met by the taxpayer.
So prevention of disease incuding obesity is crucial in addressing costs of care.
ie Responsibility and accountability
Make health care a service. Pay for it and it only.
This is a good suggestion. Insurance plans for health were never meant, originally, to cover all the mundane and routine health care needs. Health CARE versus Health INSURANCE. They are not the same things.
Insurance is meant to cover the unusual, catastrophic events that you cannot pay for out of your own savings or income. Like fire insurance or home owner’s insurance. Auto insurance is a better example. The coverage doesn’t extend to routine maintenance things like changing the oil, getting new tires or your front end aligned. The coverage is for catastrophes like totaling your car and liability coverage in the horrible event you hurt someone else.
Here are the economics of not just health insurance but all types.
1. Health Insurance that would only cover the catastrophic or events that are over a higher deductible, would be less expensive than that which covers the mundane or routine things. The reason being, that there would be fewer claims against the premiums.
2. Not paying claims for other than the basic things keeps costs in control. The policies that pay for everything encourage people to OVER use their coverage. Over use, or higher demand for services (of any kind) only serves to drive the prices up for everyone.
3. Higher deductibles lower the premiums and also the demand on services. When you have to pay more out of pocket, you don’t use more than you need. You are more careful with YOUR money.
4. Insurance should be bought and tailored for each individual’s needs and risk tolerance. Unlike Obamacare/Scotuscare which is a one size fits all insurance policy that covers things that many people do not need or want covered. Lowering the costs for those who choose to NOT cover certain things. Again. The more you cover the more expensive the premiums.
I’m not saying people shouldn’t have Health CARE. That is a completely separate issue from Health INSURANCE. I’m also quite aware that many people cannot afford insurance at all.
The government should provide these basic service as a part of Medicare for all…everyone. Basic services….not unlimited open ended services. Free for the truly poor and with a sliding scale of payments based on your income etc. Annual check up. Screenings and testings for things like breast cancer, diabetes. A few doctor visits a year. A small amount of medicines for routine illnesses…like a cold or the flu up to a selected dollar amount. Eye exams and inexpensive eyeglasses or a free cheapie set like the GI’s used to get. [“Regulation Prescription Glasses”, or “RPGs”. This was commonly said to mean “Rut Prevention Glasses” due to their unstylish appearance.]
If you need more than this. Or you know you have the potential to get a disease, diabetes, heart issues or you just want to be more covered to protect your assets……. Buy some insurance of the level that YOU need or enroll in a High Risk Pool for insurance. There USED to be those sponsored by the various states that would cover the poor at no costs or very low costs. Those were also phased out by Obamacare/Scotuscare.
This is what insurance USED to look like before it became the bloated monster it is now.
Hard work being the most prolific commenter!