> An Arizona man was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $452 million in restitution for conspiring to defraud Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs of more than $1 billion by operating a platform that generated false doctors’ orders used to support fraudulent claims for various medical items.
I wish all headlines read like this instead of "here's why you should be scared"
I think fraudsters should have to work off the money they stole at prison wages…punishments are supposed to be deterent and prevent people from commingting crime…don’t seal a billion dollars becasue IF you get caught you will have to pay back half is not a deterent…BUT if they have to pay off a billion dollars at 13-52 cents/hour…that is a deterent!
That sounds like something you’d read in a Facebook comment. This is government-sanctioned slavery, and I strongly doubt that it would serve as a deterrent. People routinely put much more on the line for much less.
At that rate you can pay back maybe $1000 per year, so if you’re only going to live 30 more years there’s no difference in punishment between 30k in fraud and a billion dollars in fraud. Punishment is the same, so might as well scam more.
Just to play devil's advocate, you're okay with forcing a criminal to sit in a room for the rest of their life, but you're not okay if they also have to work for society during that timeframe. What is the main argument why the first case is okay and the second is not.
Because it creates perverse incentive for government to put more people in prison.
Right now the punishment is confinement. When you add effectively unpaid labour in prison as part of acceptable punishment, you're also paving the way for a future where unpaid labor as a standalone punishment is also acceptable. That's just slavery by law.
thats why for some prison systems main goal is not punishment but rehabilitation. i think this is scandinavian approach.
"The stated goal of the Swedish prison system is to create a safer society by reducing recidivism and rehabilitating offenders rather than focusing solely on punishment. This is achieved through humane treatment, education, and reintegration programs designed to prepare prisoners for life after release."
Probably for the same reason that it's generally seen as less intrusive to prevent someone from doing something, compared to forcing them to do something.
The corporation would be terminated, all of its copyrights and trademarks would be nullified, and the assets seized. If investors want to try to spend their money on building the exact same thing again under a different name after those losses, that's their perogatice. I suspect that after a few of these occurrences they might start to get cagey about whether they want to give money to someone who's had this happen before though.
Seeing a lot of these pop up more recently, but this has been happening for a decade now apparently. Isn't this the fault of Medicare itself, of not having routine checks and better processes for preventing these fraudulent claims at the source?
If only the big scams are being caught (and we don't know what % are being caught), there's likely a lot more going undetected.
> The fraudulent doctors’ orders generated by DMERx falsely represented that a doctor had examined and treated the Medicare beneficiaries when, in fact, purported telemedicine companies paid doctors to sign the orders without regard to medical necessity
They'll get doctors as well? Hopefully they are part of the co-conspirators group they mentioned they convicted at the start. Criminals are going to be criminal, but it's especially disheartening when doctors engage in this. All those years going to school should be canceled and thrown into the trash immediately if they get convicted of these kinds of crimes. The path of ever being a doctor should be closed for them.
The problem here is not the doctors. It is billing it to government insurance. Doctors should remain free to gratify patients who are willing to pay cash rather than bill to government insurance. In fact, most such gratifications never have a problem for precisely this reason.
The donations to his Presidential library are a scam. I’ve made this prediction elsewhere. I am 99% confident that the Trump Presidential Library will not be build during his lifetime. Further,I am 50 year old nonsmoker and I am 85% confident the Trump Presidential Library will not be built in my lifetime.
I also expect the new East Wing Ballroom will not be built this term and the donations will mysteriously disappear with the next administration.
Well if he wasn't already contributing some percentage to the "right" people ahead of time, and saying the "right" things ("autism, something, something, vaccines, something something, persecution, ..."), he wasn't very good at what he did.
Despite the great post-sentencing opportunities for monetary re-justicing, insurance still works better when paid for up front.
Meanwhile, we have the former governor of Florida and now Seantor from Florida Rick Scott, who was CEO of the company successfully prosecuted for the largest Medicare fraud in history ($1.7 billion) [1].
Here's what to watch: how long it takes for a donation to show up to the Trump library and how soon after that the sentence is commutted. This has erased roughly $1 billion in penalties so far since January 20. Hell, it might only take $1 million.
> An Arizona man was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $452 million in restitution for conspiring to defraud Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs of more than $1 billion by operating a platform that generated false doctors’ orders used to support fraudulent claims for various medical items.
I wish all headlines read like this instead of "here's why you should be scared"
As you would expect from a state press release, not a tabloid publication.
I think fraudsters should have to work off the money they stole at prison wages…punishments are supposed to be deterent and prevent people from commingting crime…don’t seal a billion dollars becasue IF you get caught you will have to pay back half is not a deterent…BUT if they have to pay off a billion dollars at 13-52 cents/hour…that is a deterent!
That sounds like something you’d read in a Facebook comment. This is government-sanctioned slavery, and I strongly doubt that it would serve as a deterrent. People routinely put much more on the line for much less.
At that rate you can pay back maybe $1000 per year, so if you’re only going to live 30 more years there’s no difference in punishment between 30k in fraud and a billion dollars in fraud. Punishment is the same, so might as well scam more.
I wouldn't want to see that. That's called slavery!
And no, the severity of the crime does not (IMHO) justify it.
If you aren't already seeing it, it's because you're eyes are closed or you're intentionally looking away: https://www.epi.org/publication/rooted-racism-prison-labor/
Just to play devil's advocate, you're okay with forcing a criminal to sit in a room for the rest of their life, but you're not okay if they also have to work for society during that timeframe. What is the main argument why the first case is okay and the second is not.
Because it creates perverse incentive for government to put more people in prison.
Right now the punishment is confinement. When you add effectively unpaid labour in prison as part of acceptable punishment, you're also paving the way for a future where unpaid labor as a standalone punishment is also acceptable. That's just slavery by law.
> Because it creates perverse incentive for government to put more people in prison.
Except for some rare cases, I think you'll find that the cost of keeping an inmate in prison for a day makes it that you never break even
thats why for some prison systems main goal is not punishment but rehabilitation. i think this is scandinavian approach.
"The stated goal of the Swedish prison system is to create a safer society by reducing recidivism and rehabilitating offenders rather than focusing solely on punishment. This is achieved through humane treatment, education, and reintegration programs designed to prepare prisoners for life after release."
Probably for the same reason that it's generally seen as less intrusive to prevent someone from doing something, compared to forcing them to do something.
I'd like to see a prison sentence for corporations.
I'd like to see the death penalty (dissolution) for them.
How would that work. Would the employees be banned from working together again or something?
The corporation would be terminated, all of its copyrights and trademarks would be nullified, and the assets seized. If investors want to try to spend their money on building the exact same thing again under a different name after those losses, that's their perogatice. I suspect that after a few of these occurrences they might start to get cagey about whether they want to give money to someone who's had this happen before though.
Seeing a lot of these pop up more recently, but this has been happening for a decade now apparently. Isn't this the fault of Medicare itself, of not having routine checks and better processes for preventing these fraudulent claims at the source?
If only the big scams are being caught (and we don't know what % are being caught), there's likely a lot more going undetected.
Is Trump going to pardon this guy like he did Salomon Melgen, who was convicted in 2017 of defrauding Medicare out of $73 million?
Why does he only have to repay 45%?
Article says medicaid only paid 300ish million on the claims.
> The fraudulent doctors’ orders generated by DMERx falsely represented that a doctor had examined and treated the Medicare beneficiaries when, in fact, purported telemedicine companies paid doctors to sign the orders without regard to medical necessity
They'll get doctors as well? Hopefully they are part of the co-conspirators group they mentioned they convicted at the start. Criminals are going to be criminal, but it's especially disheartening when doctors engage in this. All those years going to school should be canceled and thrown into the trash immediately if they get convicted of these kinds of crimes. The path of ever being a doctor should be closed for them.
The problem here is not the doctors. It is billing it to government insurance. Doctors should remain free to gratify patients who are willing to pay cash rather than bill to government insurance. In fact, most such gratifications never have a problem for precisely this reason.
Does polymarket let you bet on when Trump pardons this guy?
It's your great chance to win big money! You should bet on it!
Couldn't you go find out yourself? Or was your purpose to score some internet points with a snarky political jab?
Is it a ‘snarky political jab’ if it is highly likely to happen irl?
It's funny when people are more upset about being called out than seeing the person they voted in do absurd things again and again.
It is a snarky political jab.
President Trump loves to pardon white collar criminals in exchange for donations. It is his whole thing and well documented.
The donations to his Presidential library are a scam. I’ve made this prediction elsewhere. I am 99% confident that the Trump Presidential Library will not be build during his lifetime. Further,I am 50 year old nonsmoker and I am 85% confident the Trump Presidential Library will not be built in my lifetime.
I also expect the new East Wing Ballroom will not be built this term and the donations will mysteriously disappear with the next administration.
I guess you've never heard of a rhetorical question.
But speaking of snark why are you so upset? Trump has form pardoning people for purely political reasons and for personal gain of various kinds.
I mean that’s pretty unabashed good news. I’m probably the most cynical person that comments regularly and I’ll take it!
It’s something at least.
You're nowhere near the most cynical peron here if your first thought wasn't "how long till he gets pardoned"?
My first thought was that the guy was required to pay back less than half of what was stolen.
From there, of course, it's a short hop to "he has more than enough money left over to purchase himself a pardon."
Recent reports say the going price is a million
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-presidential-pardo... ("Inside the New Fast Track to a Presidential Pardon" / "Lobbyists close to Trump say their going rate to advocate for a pardon is $1 million")
Well if he wasn't already contributing some percentage to the "right" people ahead of time, and saying the "right" things ("autism, something, something, vaccines, something something, persecution, ..."), he wasn't very good at what he did.
Despite the great post-sentencing opportunities for monetary re-justicing, insurance still works better when paid for up front.
Meanwhile, we have the former governor of Florida and now Seantor from Florida Rick Scott, who was CEO of the company successfully prosecuted for the largest Medicare fraud in history ($1.7 billion) [1].
Here's what to watch: how long it takes for a donation to show up to the Trump library and how soon after that the sentence is commutted. This has erased roughly $1 billion in penalties so far since January 20. Hell, it might only take $1 million.
[1]: https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2003/June/03_civ_386....