Federal agents arrested several South Florida healthcare operators early Thursday in one of the nation's biggest Medicare fraud cases, charging them with scheming to fleece $200 million from the taxpayer-funded program by billing for bogus mental health services.
Lawrence S. Duran, 48, of North Miami, and his company, American Therapeutic Corp., were charged along with other employees in a conspiracy indictment. The Miami-based company's chief executive officer, Marianella Valera, 39, was also among the defendants named in the indictment.
Federal agents round up mental health operators in $200 million Medicare fraud case
NPR commentator Juan Williams fired over Muslim remark
National Public Radio terminated the contract of commentator Juan Williams after he said on Fox’s "O’Reilly Factor" that people wearing Muslim garb on airplanes made him "worried" and "nervous."
The move was first reported Wednesday on Twitter by NPR’s media correspondent David Folkenflik, who said Williams’ remarks "were inconsistent with our editorial standards." Williams was discussing political correctness on Monday with host Bill O’Reilly and said that it can "lead to some kind of paralysis, where you don’t address reality."
Leading rabbi encourages IDF soldiers to use Palestinian human shields
"According to true Jewish values, your lives come before those of the enemy, whether he is a soldier or a civilian under protection. Therefore, you are forbidden from endangering your own life for the sake of the enemy, not even for a civilian," Shapira declared.
Shapira was arrested over the summer for encouraging Jews to kill Gentiles in his book "The King's Torah." The preface of the book, which was published in November, states that it is forbidden to kill non-Jews - but the book then apparently describes the context in which it is permitted to do so.
Examination of all possible causes for America's worsening life expectancy eliminates everything but modern health care as the cause.
Ultimately, health care seems to be the culprit in Americans' increasingly shorter lifespans. The authors investigated the impact of health insurance on mortality rates, and found that there is very little. They stated that insurance "coverage has large effects on use of health care but only small effects on mortality, which are concentrated in low-income groups."
They go on to note that only a very small difference in life expectancy can be found as a result of access to medical insurance. It should also be pointed out that these studies are looking for such a connection, so their inability to find one should be taken as highly significant.
Insurers Test New Cancer Pay Systems
Several large health insurers, including UnitedHealthcare and Aetna, are focusing on one of the country’s most costly diseases: cancer. The insurers have begun tightening oversight of the care provided to patients with many different types of cancer, hoping to lower expenses by experimenting with new ways to pay specialists.
UnitedHealthcare plans to announce on Wednesday a one-year project with five oncology practices, offering doctors an additional fee. The new fee is meant to encourage doctors to follow standard treatments rather than opting too often for individualized and unproven courses of therapy, which can include the most expensive drug combinations.
Efforts to Prosecute Blackwater Collapse
Nearly four years after the federal government began a string of investigations and criminal prosecutions against Blackwater Worldwide personnel accused of murder and other violent crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, the cases are beginning to fall apart, burdened by a legal obstacle of the government’s own making.
In the most recent and closely watched case, the Justice Department on Monday said that it would not seek murder charges against Andrew J. Moonen, a Blackwater armorer accused of killing a guard assigned to the Iraqi vice president on Dec. 24, 2006.
Sen. Bond: Troops with combat stress discharged, not treated
The military has been discharging troops who are suffering from combat stress, instead of providing treatment, according to Missouri Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond and several veterans advocates.
That would mean that many who could be afflicted with mental health conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, have left the service without official medical diagnoses and no chance for medical benefits.
Taking the Public Out of Public TV
A multi-part FAIR exposé of PBS's most prominent news and public affairs programs demonstrates that public television is failing to live up to its mission to provide an alternative to commercial television, to give voice to those "who would otherwise go unheard" and help viewers to "see America whole, in all its diversity," in the words of public TV's founding document.
In a special November issue of studies and analyses of PBS's major public affairs shows, FAIR's magazine Extra! shows that "public television" features guestlists strongly dominated by white, male and elite sources, who are far more likely to represent corporations and war makers than environmentalists or peace advocates.
US ranks 20th in 2010 Press Freedom Index
“Our latest world press freedom index contains welcome surprises, highlights sombre realities and confirms certain trends,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said as his organisation issued its ninth annual index today.
“More than ever before, we see that economic development, institutional reform and respect for fundamental rights do not necessarily go hand in hand. The defence of media freedom continues to be a battle, a battle of vigilance in the democracies of old Europe and a battle against oppression and injustice in the totalitarian regimes still scattered across the globe.
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