January 26, 2011
Assistant Attorney Generals Tony West and Lanny Breuer appear before the Judiciary Committee with a recap of funds recovered on behalf of the taxpayer in 2010. You can read the full statement here.
Needless to say, Church Street Health Management f/k/a FORBA Holdings and their Small Smiles dental clinics settlement came up in the statement. It was one year ago this month that Small Smiles settled an investigation which began in late 2007 with the Feds for $24 million, as well as settled with the state of NY for another $2 million.
Watch full session here, session begins at 28 minutes in, so move slider bar forward.
Senator Leahy says he wants to see these people go to jail, he compares it to a person who steals a car, who goes to jail.
Senator Grassley wants answers about settlements, who agreed to them and if they are nothing more than the cost of doing business.
Me too, Senator Grassley, me too!
Mr. West said when it comes to Corporate Fraud, they wanted to make it a financial deterrent for corporations committing fraud.
Sen. Leahy wanted to know what was being done to put them in jail!
Mr. West said the average jail term is amounting to over 40 months.
Sen. Leahy inquired into what other legislation could be done to assist in bringing the crooks to justice. However, Mr. West talked more about financial institutions committing fraud than those in the medical field.
Sen. Grassley said fraud was 5 to 8 percent in Medicaid and Medicare expense in the US. He quoted a recent Wall Street Journal series saying there are failures in stopping the loss upfront, calling it pay and chase.
There is a 1979 law protecting doctors billing information, Sen. Grassley would like that changed, he asked Mr. Breuer if he thought that would be a good idea.
He also asked if it would be better it stop all payments to those under investigation. My answer, yes indeed! This way, extra special attention would be made to see that there was no implication of fraud.
Questions were asked over again as to why no prison terms.
I have a question, what does one do if they know companies such as Church Street Health Management f/k/a FORBA were NOT following their Corporate Integrity Agreements, is there Whistle Blower II ? Revisit operation Bite Back, Senators. Please.
I urge you to take time to listen to the hearing in the link above and if you're here at this site, then you know information that this committee needs to hear. A good example would be Church Street Management making their Office Managers Compliance Liaisons.
These office managers have to answer to the Lead Dentist, they also receive a bonus based on production. They did then and they do now! Think these Office Managers are going to report compliance issues? Not if they want to feed their families.
Sen. Franken wants to know why a contractor who has committed fraud would still be in business with the government, or anyone else for that matter. Mr. Breuer said it was up to the individual agencies. If a contractor defrauded work at my home, I certainly would NOT keep him on the payroll. Would you?
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