: . , :.� .' .� �. � -. ;" � .� . '.. � .
lac
doctors .are being
sent: to jail
By Nor a J. Cle eat, DDS
Syndiellud H�1I1l1a Columnist
y
piing of 40 Dentist, Dental Sur-'
vey of America found gr duatca
of Howard (11), Meharry (8)
and University of Michigan (4)
as the top candidates for in­
dicted or sanctioned providers
of medicaid violations. It should
be noted that these three
schoo in their respective order
have the greatest numbers of
Black gr duates.
The report went on to say.
"That Meharry Medical CoI-!
lege, . its very high bIacl stu­
dent enrollment accounts for six
violators is striking. Black doc­
tors DOW make up abo 26 per­
ccat of the 400,(0) physicians
practidDg in the UDited States.
These seem to rdlect
in some measure the heavier
concentr tion of black and'
foreign graduates in innu-city
wort, where medicaid mills apt
to flourish. and where prac-
. titio rs maybe most apt to feel
MARCH 11-17, 1".
the need and possess the self ex­
cusatory rationalizations for
cheating in order to compen­
sate for the lower fees offered to
those who treat aid program
patients .... Nonetheless, other
studies indicate that by no
means can large Medicaid prac­
tices be regarded as necessarily
fraudulent.
. It maybe that they are more
vulnerable, or that greater en­
forcement resources are
focused upon their work. In
street crime statistics, black and
ethnic minorities constitute a
heavily disproportionate seg­
ment of the offending popula­
tion. But this is because they
commit the kind of acts that.are
more readily detected, and .
which find their way into the
numerical tabulation of
. - criminal activity.
. White-coUar offense, such as
antitrust violations,. toxic waste
disposal offenses, and similar
kinds of as, are believed to im-
pose higher cost and more
serious injuries on the popula­
tion than the street offenses, but
their perpetrators are less rare­
lyacted against because, among
other things, the cases are more
complicated, tougher to win
a d intent is difficult to estab­
lish. It remains arguable, then,
how truly those doctors snared
represent the universe of
hysicians violating against
Medicare and Medicaid."
Dental Survey of America in­
vestigate and found that the
training received by fraud inves­
tigative personnel consisted of
either on the job training . (with
no medical or dental back­
grounds) or a three to seven day
training course sponsored by
municipal organizations.
Providers frequently verified
that their first realization of an
investigation occurred when
fraud units begin to harass and
intimidate patients and
, employees affiliated with their
operation.
Several Florida Dentists
reported frequent calls' from
patients complaining of visits to
their homes and jobs by fraud
investigators. These patients
reported having been told that
their dentists were engaging in
fraudulent activity, and that
these same investigators were
encouraging their patients to
l /
MICHIGA CITIZE
PAGE 13
. -
BLACK AND)
FOREIGNERS
�KE THE
EASIEST
E FORCEIIENT
TARGETS·
find another dentist. One Den­
tist also reported reported to
DSA that one of his former den­
ture patients had called his of- -
fice and stated she was
approached by fraud inves- .
tigators in her yard and asked to
. remover. her denture. This Den­
tis stated, "I noticed a sig­
nificant drop in patients on
medicaid making appointments
with my office."
Rogers W. Fosler. Vice­
President of Marketing· at
Quality Clinical Laboratories
ha . eloquently stated his ex­
perience 'in a recent letter to
CBS 60 minutes," Among the
. troubling aspects of these Fraud
Units is the fact that experts
co istently report that health
care for poor Americans is bad
and getting worse! So, it be­
comes obvious to the most
casual observer tha while the
administrators of the Medicaid
program have little interest in
the welfare of the recipients,
they do have an obses ive zeal to
persecute providers who serve
these recipients."
The Office of In pector
General (O�G) for the Depart­
ment of Health and Human er­
vices (HHS) which has specific
oversight of these Fraud Units
conclude that, "Medicaid Fraud
Control Units (MFCU's) rep­
resent a .strong deterrent to
fraud, waste, and abuse at the
state level that could not be
duplicated by the OIG if the
unit did not exist." Many health
exp-erts and health care
providers involved with
medicaid agreed on one thing:
"One sure way of wiping out
medicaid fraud and abuse is to
wipe out all of the providers."
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