O'Keefe is at it again...

"Widespread Medicare fraud!"

The usual, badly edited videos.

Face it, the guy is incapable of doing an honest news story.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201107180042

nt

:evilgrin:

signifying nothing

Didn't this asshole get thrown in jail last time he tried one of these? Or was it the time before? (I'm thinking about when he tried to tap Mary Landrieu's phone and got nailed.)

Like the prosecutor in the county...who deemed it a childish prank punishable by a stern warning, which can be ignored as soon as the heat dies down.

that steal the money. And my guess a lot of them are republicans.

And even if O'Keefe goes after doctors, this is most likely what he'll find: My father's medical practice was 80% Medicare patients. I can't see O'Keefe going after someone like that because he prescribed a name brand pharmnaceutical for his cardiac patients instead of a generic brand.

Three years after Scott left Columbia/HCA, the company admitted wrongdoing, pleading guilty to 14 felonies -- most committed during Scott's tenure -- in addition to paying two sets of fines totaling $1.7 billion...

Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2010/06/rick-scotts-role-in-columbiahca-scandal.html#ixzz1SYKX2V3Y

On March 19th, 1997, investigators from the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services served search warrants at Columbia/HCA facilities in El Paso and on dozens of doctors with suspected ties to the company.<3> Following the raids, the Columbia/HCA board of directors forced Rick Scott to resign as Chairman and CEO. <4> He was paid a settlement of $9.88 million, and left with 10 million shares of stock worth over $350 million, mostly from his initial investment.<5><6> In 1999, Columbia/HCA changed its name back to HCA, Inc.

In settlements reached in 2000 and 2002, Columbia/HCA pleaded guilty to 14 felonies. They admitted systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about use of hospital space.

HCA also admitted fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. They filed false cost reports, fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers, and paid kickbacks in the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients. In addition, they gave doctors "loans" never intending to be repaid, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies.<7> <8>

In late 2002, HCA agreed to pay the U.S. government $631 million, plus interest, and pay $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies, in addition to $250 million paid up to that point to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims.<9> In all, civil law suits cost HCA more than $2 billion to settle, by far the largest fraud settlement in US history.<10>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital_Corporation_of_America

from Rupert Murdoch to KKKarl Rove. Do whatever dirty underhanded thing it takes to throw mud and muck around the political system to make Democrats look bad, and damn the consequences - actually, the more collateral damage the better.
:puke: