Mitch Keamy is an anesthesiologist in Las Vegas Nevada
Andy Kofke is a Professor of Neuro-anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennslvania
Mike O'Connor is Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Chicago
Rob Dean is a cardiac anesthesiologist in Grand Rapids Michigan, with extensive experience in O.R. administration.
73 accused (a foreign criminal enterprise is alleged).
2,900 stolen identities. Birthdates, social security numbers.
118 phantom clinics in 25 states.
Preposterous patterns of care that are not even remotely plausible.
Completely fictional physicians. How does this happen? Seriously.
163 million dollars.
I bet the paperwork was perfect, and would have passed a RAC audit with flying colors.....
You can't make this stuff up. No one would believe it except for the inconvenient truth that it happens to be true (or allegedly so).
Is anyone more confidant the the Gummint can administer health care on a larger scale? They cannot even prevent massive fraud in the portions of the system they administer now. While I doubt that there are larger frauds out there, it is likely that there are an even larger number of more smaller scale operations. It is entirely possible that smarter perpetrators would be harder to detect and even more difficult to apprehend.
Ugh.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101014/ap_on_bi_ge/us_medicare_fraud_arrests
Tragic
Posted by: rlbates | October 13, 2010 at 07:20 PM
There's a long and sordid history of "upcoding," of which fictional care for fictional (or deceased) patients is at the extreme. This is a step further, and will provoke the inevitable new round of paperwork for our reimbursement...
Posted by: Mitch Keamy | October 14, 2010 at 03:44 AM