-
Columbia/HCA paid the largest-ever fine for Medicare fraud. The CEO who presided over that fraud was just sworn in as governor of Florida…which he promises to run like a business. Oh, Florida. This will end badly.
-
Congress now requires that each bill introduced include a statement demonstrating by what constitutional authority the bill is permissible. A commenter on Metafilter astutely points out how quickly that this will become irrelevant.
-
Very clever move, calling filibuster reform the "Mr. Smith Bill." I've long opposed changes to the filibuster, but that changed when I learned a years ago (like many people) that the filibuster had stopped being what we all thought it was: a guy standing up and talking without stopping. Now they're all paper filibusters, without any need to exert any effort whatsoever. Sen. Frank Lautenberg's bill would revert to the pre-1975 version of the filibuster, the filibuster that we all know and love.
-
I've long taken it as an article of faith that Election Day should be a holiday, in order to increase the accessibility of voting. But this 2008 federal study found that the states that have done so don't have any higher turnout than those that haven't. As best as they can tell, the same would be true if Election Day were made a national holiday. Disappointing, but good to know.
-
In this brilliant investigative article, the British Medical Journal exposes how the fraudulent autism/vaccine study was published in The Lancet in 1998. Andrew Wakefield (a gastrointestinal surgeon) faked the study, having discovered that he could make a mint by filing a lawsuit against vaccine makers if he could just invent a disease caused by vaccines. The data was invented, the medical histories of the twelve children sometimes invented out of whole cloth, the children treated like so many guinea pigs, every single case significantly misrepresented. The depth of the research behind this investigation is really impressive. As a reminder, there is zero evidence of any connection between autism and vaccines. Nothing. Not a lick. No exceptions. Anybody who doesn't vaccine their children because of autism is misinformed or delusional.
-
WVTF: Gang Crime in VirginiaYesterday, on WVTF, Sandy Hausman had a great, long story about gang crime in Virginia. At first I thought it would be your standard "gangs want to initiate your toddlers and kill them" story, but it proved to be precisely the opposite. Virginia's largest agency is the Department of Corrections. We spend $30k/year/prisoner, three times what we spend in grade schools per student. That's an equation we might rebalance if we want to deal with gangs.
Comments are closed.
I understood that the billing practices that were in place when Rick Scott bought the companies that created HCA was what got them in trouble. Not billing practices that Mr. Scott implemented. Once Rick took over they became compliant. I also understood he was cleared of any wrongdoing. The article you linked to, seemed to gloss over any of what I mentioned.
Interesting! All I know about this is what I read in the linked article, but I’d be happy to learn more about it. I’m not quite sure of how he could be legally cleared of wrongdoing, since generally in these scenarios only the companies are held liable, not individuals at the company—but, again, I’m always happy to learn more!
Alderson filed his whistle-blower suit in 1993 — a year before Scott’s Columbia took over HCA. For years, the filing was kept under seal but eventually became public in the feds’ assault on Columbia/HCA. He was later profiled on 60 Minutes.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/26/1703036_p4/rick-scott-and-his-role-in-columbiahca.html#ixzz1AJd2Hl7i
It seems that what I heard is similar to what is in this story from the Miami Herald. They did not paint a rosy picture for the Gov. Scott. What I heard was put in a more positive light. It will be interesting to see how FL fares. Medicare and state Medicaids are no fun to deal with…
Yeah, that article doesn’t exactly exonerate the guy. :) Basically, the fraud wasn’t his idea, but he supported it fully after he took it over, and once they were charged with fraud, he quit because the board wanted to ‘fess up, and he wanted to fight the charges. Seems to me like he actually convinced himself that this was a reasonable business practice. I’m not sure if that’s better, or worse!
It’s amazing that it’s taken this long for someone to propose returning to “real” filibusters. The “Mr. Smith” thing is brilliant. Although I wonder how many people under about 40 have actually seen that movie.