We have all heard the “Baby Einstein” commercials and seen the colorful, bright characters. We also have all heard and seen these videos promise that it will make our toddlers and children brighter, smarter, and help them learn faster. It turns out this is not true and this is just turning out to be a “Baby Einstein” scam.  According to the American Academy of Pediatrics children under two should stay away from the television.  According to a study from the Campaign from Commercial-Free Childhood, there is a link between early television watching and problems with a child’s attention span later in life. These videos promised that our children would learn more, be brighter, and smarter later in life, not have attention and other school related problems, clearly Baby Einstein is a scam. This has led to Disney offering a refund to parents that bought Baby Einstein videos and other baby Einstein products and “teaching substitutes”.

                Clearly, this baby Einstein scam has become a wakeup call for many parents who have yet again realized that television and other technology products are not always a good teaching substitute and parents should always supervise their children and help them as they learn and grow to be an active part of their learning process. Yes, the Baby Einstein scam is bad and should not have happened especially since it affects children and their education now and in the future, but maybe this will again reinforce that these products as well as others are never good parenting or teaching substitutes and parents still need to look out for their children’s education and their needs. A child’s education is very important and should not just be looked over by having them watch Baby Einstein videos or other products. Children’s education should also include active learning with both the child and the parent.

                For more information on the baby Einstein scam and other children’s educational products, you may visit: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/the-great-baby-einstein-scam-531147/

If you feel that you and your child have been mistreated because of improper warning labels due to the baby Einstein scam, you should contact a defective product attorney right away. They will help you advocate for your rights and those of your child.

Medicare and Medicaid services were created to help the elderly and or those with disabilities or certain other medical conditions be able to better afford medical coverage in order to pay for supplies, medical care, treatments, doctor’s visits and much more. This all seems like a good idea if it works the way it should and benefits those it is suppose to. Unfortunately though, there have been more and more cases of Medicare and Medicaid fraud and people are getting sneaky about how they get around the rules. Billing Medicare for services that were not received or provided can cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year and it also hurts those people that really need the medical care and services by causing them to pay more. To help avoid being a victim of Medicare Fraud use the following helpful detection tips. These tips include:

• Be suspicious if a test is free and if a provider only needs your Medicare information for their records.
•  Be aware if Medicare wants you to have a certain item or service.
• Be cautious if the provider knows how to get Medicare to pay for an item or service
• Be on the look out for provider that offer many tests at cheaper or discounted prices
• Be careful if the equipment or service is free or you are offered a gift for the service

It is also important to know what services and equipment or medical supplies you are entitled to and report or question anything that seems out of the ordinary. As a general rule do not give out your Medicare health insurance claim number expect to your doctor or Medicare provider.

It is unfortunate that many people will try to scam those in need out of services and medical supplies for their own personal gain. It is good to know though that you can do something to help stop cases of fraud.

For additional information on Medicare fraud and prevention, you may visit:

http://www.medicare.gov/Fraudabuse/Tips.asp

If you or a loved one feel you have been a victim of Medicare fraud, please contact a  whistleblower attorney right away. They can help your case to be heard and make sure you get the care you deserve.

Like the child who kills his parents and then begs for mercy because he is an orphan, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce now is begging President-elect Barack Obama to protect corporate interests in the nation’s civil litigation system as a way of restoring jobs and bolstering an economy shattered largely (as we now know) by corporate greed and misfeasance. – Andrew Cohen, CBS

In a desperate attempt to plead for mercy to the new President-Elect, The chamber of commerce is merely renewing an argument that has failed for decades.  The Chamber has been pushing tirelessly for almost half a century now to rein in plaintiffs’ attorneys (who look to punish corporate negligence or fraud with civil lawsuits), deregulate industry and commerce (we all know how well Wall Street did with its freedom), and nullify important consumer protection laws (like the one in Maine which is allowing smokers to go after tobacco companies for false advertising).History has shown us how devastatingly successful the Corporate interest machine can be.  Because of the Chamber’s organization, innocently named The Institute for Legal Reform, the Securities and Exchange Commission backed off its scrutiny of screwy deals and schemes, the Congress was lax in its oversight of the mortgage industry, litigators were thwarted or punished, and the White House and Justice Department pushed a legal doctrine (”preemption”) that almost always helped employers over employees. 

Results such as this put public interest on the loosing side.  The American legal system over the past 20 years has been a victim of unremitting advances for the Chamber and its fellow travelers in law, politics and governance. The Chamber has labeled “abusive litigation” as the cause of almost every economic problem to face the modern United States.  Could the lawyers who enforce corporate responsibility truly is the cause every economic disaster of our modern economy? 

 CBS Correspondent and Attorney Andrew Cohen thinks not:

Plaintiffs’ attorneys aren’t responsible for the mortgage-fueled economic meltdown. Class-action litigation isn’t, either. And don’t blame overzealous regulators or greedy employees who want better pay or conditions in their own factories. The people with whom the Chamber and the Institute do battle are not the people who invented or allowed the great pyramid schemes, which brought down Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They did not force consumers to spend more than they earned or save less than they should. Corporate America is directly responsible for what has just happened to corporate America, and if you don’t believe me, ask the folks at Ford, GM and Chrysler.The economic meltdown came about because business interests were able to greatly decrease the vital tensions between industry and regulation, between oversell and oversight. And it will take the restoration of those tensions by government leaders not just to help bring us out of our slump but to help ensure that the next downturn doesn’t come again for a long time.

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Most people envision Medicare or Medicaid fraud as a pharmacist billing for name brand prescriptions while dispersing the generic version, or a doctor inflating the cost of his services to bring in a few extra bucks.

Unfortunately, another type of Medicare and Medicaid fraud exists—and it’s one that took the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 7 years to put a stop to.

A subcommittee report issued by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Investigations Subcommittee on Tuesday revealed CMS has paid out more than $70 million between 2000 and 2007 for durable medical equipment that used the personal identification number of a deceased physician.

In response to the discovery, CMS deputy administrator, Herb Kuhn, assured government officials that the agency is working on a new system to stop fraudulent billing from “dead doctors”.  Apparently, the proposed system will require doctors to use a new National Provider Identifier, which will automatically cross check death records from the Social Security Administration database.

In addition, Kuhn told Subcommittee Chair Carl Levin (D-Mich.) that while the stolen funds have yet to be recovered, the agency plans to withhold future bonuses for companies found to be involved in the scam.

Withhold future bonuses?

I would hope that CMS would conduct an audit and prosecute every single company that participated in the dead doctor scam.  Patients are denied funding every day under Medicare and Medicaid because of budget constraints.  These scammers essentially stole from sick people who could have used that money to buy medicine, etc.

In addition, CMS should receive a complete administration overhaul for waiting so long to address this problem.  A few sources suggest that CMS may have known of the dead doctor scam as early as 2001—which is completely unacceptable in my opinion.

I think subcommittee ranking member Norm Colman (R-Minn) sums up the dead doctor scam the best: “We live in a high tech world…Surely we should have the capacity to figure out if doctors are dead.”

I totally agree.

Related Information:

Medicare or Medicare fraud & whistleblower protection

Irs tax fraud & Irs tax whistleblower protection

New Jersey Whistleblower Attorneys

On June 4, 2008, Walgreen’s drug store agreed to pay $35 million to settle a Medicare whistleblower lawsuit. In the suit, retail giant Walgreen’s was accused of substituting more expensive versions of three prescription drugs between 2001 and 2005 in an attempt to defraud the medicare system.

Pharmacist Bernard Listiza was credited for blowing the whistle on the fraud scheme and will receive $5 million as a reward for his cooperation.  This same pharmacist brought a similar suit against CVS Caremark Corporation in late 2006.

In addition, individual states such as Indiana and Ohio have accused the pharmacy of making wholesale switches without physician involvement, which is a violation of numerous state regulations on pharmaceutical drugs.  The two states listed above recovered $161,000 and $28, 479 respectively from the Medicare settlement

Related Whistleblower and Medicaid Fraud Information:

New Jersey Whistleblower Attorneys and Lawsuit Information:

Pennsylvania Whistleblower Attorneys and Lawsuit Information

Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Whistleblower Laws

This past April, the United States Supreme Court announced its decision that it would not review the case of Murphy v. IRS. Consequently, the IRS can continue to tax damages awarded to victims of whistleblower retaliation and other civil rights violations — even though such damages are not income. Under previous law, whistleblowers that were awarded significant compensation received those funds “tax free’. This law was consistent with earlier court decisions, which stated that compensation for whistleblowers was not income and, therefore, any tax on a whistle blower”s damages violated the United States Constitution.

Unfortunately, because the Supreme Court decided not to hear the Murphy case, whistleblowers and victims of civil rights violations will have to personally fight the IRS in its taxation claims.

Fortunately, a bill is pending in Congress entitled Civil Rights Tax Relief Act of 2007 (”CRTRA’). This legislation would amend the tax code to end the improper and unfair taxation of whistleblower damages as well as other damages awarded to individuals who have suffered unlawful civil right violations and discrimination in the workplace. Hopefully, this bill will get some traction in that it is supported by both employers and employees and has unusually broad bipartisan support from members of Congress.

For further whistleblower lawsuit information, click on the following links:
Whistleblower Lawyer and Lawsuit Information
Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Lawyer and Lawsuit Information

On March 18, 2007, CVS agreed to pay $36.7 million as a result of allegations that the company improperly switched patients from the tablet version of the prescription drug Zantak to a more expensive version in order to increase Medicaid reimbursement. The fraud was brought to light by a Bernard Listiza, a pharmacist in Washington, DC. Following extensive negotiations between the US Attorney”s Office and CVS, CVS agreed to pay $36.7 million for defrauding the government. The United States” share of the settlement was approximately $21.1 million, with 23 states and the District of Columbia sharing $15.6 million. More importantly, the pharmacist, Mr. Listiza, received $4,309,330.74 as his share of the settlement.

For further information on whistleblower lawsuits, click on the following links:

Medicare and Medicaid fraud lawsuit information
New Jersey State Medicare and Medicaid fraud lawsuit information
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The Federal Government issued a report stating that in 2005 alone, whistleblower lawsuits resulted in a recovery of 1.1 billion dollars to the United States Government. The actual whistleblowers that brought these claims to light were awarded $166 million dollars for their involvement.

One of the largest cases from 2005 involved a whistleblower that discovered Medicare had made $21.7 billion in improper payments to doctors, hospitals and insurers in 2004. After the government recouped the money, the whistleblower was awarded over a billion dollars in compensation.

Similarly, in March 2005, a whistleblower that had previously worked for defense contractor Northorp, was awarded $12.4 million after the company settled their $1.33 million lawsuit for overcharges to the Pentagon for massive fraud and over-billing.

For further information on whistleblower lawsuits, click on the following links:

NJ Employment Lawyer: Whistleblower Retaliation and Lawsuit Information
PA Employment Lawyer: Whistleblower Retaliation and Lawsuit Information
Medicare Fraud Lawyer and Lawsuit Information
NJ State Medicare Fraud and Lawsuit Information

I read an interesting article today by MC Kean entitled “Arrogance, Abuse, Fraud and Medical Malpractice: How Some Physicians Beg For Lawsuits.” Kean basically turns the table on doctors who are portraying medical malpractice victims as “sue happy” and exposes the real greed fueling medical malpractice suits which lies within the medical community itself.

Keen states, “Physicians and mass media often depict patients and their lawyers who file lawsuits against doctors as greedy, money-grubbing opportunist. 1 It turns out this is more projection than reality. A 1990 study by Harvard researchers of 31,000 medical records subjected to evaluation by practicing doctors and nurses, “found that doctors were injuring one out of every 25 patients (latter studies put that figure closer to one out of every seven patients), and that only 4 percent of these injured patients sued.” 2 Another Harvard study of 1,452 malpractice lawsuits found that more than 90 percent of the claims evidence supported medical injury and 25 percent of the time the patient died, 60% of these injuries resulted from physician wrongdoing. The study also found when “baseless” malpractice suits were brought they were “efficiently thrown out.” Only 145 of 515 patients suffering injury, but where physician fault was unclear received compensation. On the other hand, 236 cases were thrown out of court despite evidence of injury and physician error.”

Keen then outlines some of the ways in which doctors and hospitals profit from medical malpractice. I have summarized them as follows:

• Kickback Driven Medicine- Doctors will prescribe medication and implant medical devices that are either inappropriate for that patient or ineffective for the sake of money. Keen found that “in one study one third of the doctors interviewed, “admitted they would order unnecessary MRI scans and 25% referred patients to an imaging center where they had a financial interest”.”
• Promoting Unnecessary Surgeries- Doctors will often fail to disclose alternate or less radical form of treatment, even when they know the alternate treatment is a safer choice.
• Bait and Switch- This refers to a doctor switch during surgery. A person will take their time to choose a surgeon based on bedside manner, qualifications, etc., only to find out that a resident or less qualified doctor actually preformed the surgery while they were under anesthesia. The original surgeon then moves on to a higher paying client while the resident who is on salary operates on you with no supervision. Consequently, the surgeon is paid for two major surgeries while only performing one.
• Unnecessary Procedures and Exams for the Sake of Training- Unnecessary procedures are not only ordered for patients, but they are prolonged for the sake of training. Multiple students will take turns practicing the same procedure on a sedated patient. Keen states that “informed patients while often willing to accept one or two trainees, are less likely, for example, to consent to their pelvic or anus being penetrated multiple times by multiple people. This gang bang approach to teaching is very abusive”.
• Physicians Will Lie- Keen points out that “doctors are often arrogant and indifferent to the very concept of informed consent. Physicians patronizingly claim to know what is best for patients, while they fail to listen or respond to expressed needs, violate patients expressed will, and even do things to patients they would not allow be done to themselves”. He claims that doctors will do as they please and lie about it if it becomes a problem.
• Physicians Target the Poor – Because of their lower income level and at times lower IQ, Keen claims “physicians target the poor, mentally disabled, and seriously ill patients who are heavily dependent upon the medical access they receive, as they are less likely to file lawsuits”

Among Keen”s many suggestions to combat some of the issues listed above ( such as being skeptical of any doctor who tries to coerce you into taking medication, undergoing several MRI”s etc.), I think the best suggestion he offers is the following:

“When you find a doctor has abused you; let the rest of us know. Post flyers, post adds, get the word out about that doctor. Start an Abusive Doctor boycott list web site in your area. As we boycott those physicians and seek care with more ethical practitioners incentives may shift a bit.”

It is so important for patients to speak out regarding medical malpractice. Doctors and hospitals have the financial backing to silence the few outspoken critics who attempt to rally congress against malpractice lawsuit caps and tort reform. With enough public outcry and bad PR for those doctors and hospitals that injure patients, change will slowly start to take place.

Admittedly, doctors are human and mistakes will happen even under the strictest regulations and safety procedures. However, it”s the careless errors that we can prevent by drawing attention to these problems. Public outcry will weed out the doctors who continue to abuse patients for the sake of money or those who continue to injure patients because they know they can get away with it.

For further information on medical malpractice or medical malpractice lawsuits, click on the following links:

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