But we need to make the penalties for gaming the system FAR more draconian -- such that no provider would even consider it for a moment.

Clearly fines are not doing it. GlaxoSmithKline paid $2 billion and people are still willing to go for the ill-gotten gold.

We need fines AND prison terms. And if you're a doctor or a nurse who engages in this activity, you license is gone. Forever. Go fucking work at Starbucks.

Until that become a foolish question, people will continue to attempt to game the system.

does not compute.

This is the only case of false billing we've found. Because surely this isn't happening anywhere else.

5 hours in ER, mostly waiting because the dumb fucks were backed up, $3500. Got another bill from a radiology outfit because apparently not all billing is done through the hospital and they've outsourced radiology.

If I ever meet a congressman responsible for keeping us on this broken, fucked up, fraudulent system we're in, I'm gonna make sure he needs his free, socialized health care.

even tho all x-rays are done IN the hospital and sometimes in ICU.
Radiology docs are contracted by hospital, they charge separetly.
The dr. charge is for reading the films. on top of what you pay for the actual films.

Plus ER is contracted out, is considered outpatient, ours is actually run by same doc who owns and runs the ambulances.
And if you do not have insurance, you WILL pay thru the nose.

Capitalism. It's enough to make you go communist.

Sell birdseed you know is poison, because the potential profit outweighs potential punishing fines.
Mutilate human beings unnecessarily, because profit is the only important bottom line.

There was also a case not long ago in which a doctor at a hospital in Maryland was found to have carried out hundreds of unnecessary heart operations.

The creepiest line of the story came at the end. I have bolded it here:

although other lawsuits are not over yet. One article I saw suggested, though, that he was never at risk for actually going to prison. The article (which I am having trouble finding again...) contrasted his case to another recent case like this, in which the doctor *was* sentenced to federal prison:

Salisbury stent doctor sentenced to federal prison
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-11-10/health/bs-md-mclean-sentenced-20111108_1_stent-patients-unnecessary-coronary-stents-federal-prison

so they could "put off" telling me until they knew how to approach his treatment. By the time they weaned me off, I had to cough up stuff the consistency of a wet tennis ball, and I had raging pneumonia..

I went in with a 34-wk abruption (over 1/3 detached placenta, a BP of nada & had 7 units on the table).. then our son had a serious birth defect...so they just kept me knocked out.. I was there 11 days due to the complications they added.. A night nurse finally introduced me to my son on day 8-.

...but I suppose with the seriousness of your condition they'd be able to argue they kept you under for your own health rather than to keep from telling you information about your son's condition.

That is really f'd up.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Heads better roll on this one!

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]"For profit" should not exist for any basic needs and services.

and I have no problem with that. The point is that we can make intelligent choices on the options. You can pick apples or oranges for your fruit. You can buy your rice or barley for your grain. You can eat pork or beef or chicken.

But in health care, few of us know enough to make an intelligent choice. If the doctor says, "you need to get this test and then we're going to do that procedure," are you going to second-guess him? Are you going to wait around for a second opinion? How is the second opinion a better value than the first?

We trade off no second guessing for receiving the best decision. Doctors and others in the health industry know they have a lock on revenue. They don't need to pad it with false or inaccurate decisions.

Maybe that company can pay off some of the exorbitant fine he'll probably incur.

neoliberal for-profit medicine = travesty of 'care'.

Perverse reimbursement leads to perverse behavior.

Second-degree murder is ordinarily defined as: 1) an intentional killing that is not premeditated or planned, nor committed in a reasonable "heat of passion"; or 2) a killing caused by dangerous conduct and the offender's obvious lack of concern for human life. Second-degree murder may best be viewed as the middle ground between first-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.

http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/second-degree-murder-overview.html

5 dead within 2 weeks? Unless he is operating on people that are in intensive care already, that's pretty damning by itself.

If I were a prosecuting attorney, and I thought I could find 12 jurors who might be older, be thinking about going into the hospital one day, who might think about putting this son-of-bitch in prison for 50 or 60 years, I would sure think about such a charge.

And civil lawyers should be lining up to take a chunk out of the hospital that allowed it. I wonder how much the administrator makes a year?

Being an attorney with chronic health problems and raising a son with a terminal illness, it's safe to say I have had my share of interactions with doctors and other healthcare professionals. I have met some wonderful and talented professionals, but I have also seen many who were strictly for the money. Even though I have never handled a medical malpractice case I am treated differently, and what was worse, my children were too.
I had a pediatrician, go from ordering one test for him in the E.R. Which he spoke with me about and said that would tell him what he needed to know. He also ranted about lawyers for awhile. When the business person came and took me to experience the joy that is signing to pay a bill you don't know how big it will be, the doctor found out I was an attorney. That was when the shit hit the fan! He ordered more procedures, lab work, more x-rays, Cat Scan... This was the only time I had been in ANY E.R. where there were no other patients. The room had been full of all of the nurses and an x-ray tech. They told me the doctor had freaked out when he was told I was an attorney. I had not told him simply because the 1st story he told me about concerning lawyers ended when he said he will punch the next one out who tries to take him to Court. I knew he would not treat us well by that point, and boy I was sure right about that.
Doctors, like cops, will immorally cover for their own. Lawyers, some by nature, will go after anyone! Thankfully, there are exceptions to the rule, like the nurses who ratted the doctor out! One seemed to know and dislike the guy, but the other 2 new what pain and fear my son suffered so the doctor could cover his ass! That's my rant for the day.

hospital that *doesn't* do that, and take their business there. I'm confident the market will sort this out.

If so, there will be a special place waiting for these scumbags.

how much an Audi t10 costs? Or a high class time piece for the wrist? Jeeeeeeezzzzuzzzzz, those things aren't free, ya know.

ok am i going to hell now