Too big to Jail: This is justice in 2017

[Editor]

Now, if you go down to your local Wal-Mart and walk out the door with some goods and forget to pay, you'll likely get a ride in a police car handcuffed, be photographed, fingerprinted and jailed and eventually have to see a judge.

Here's a recent case from Calvert to illustrate:

THEFT CASE #17-19071: On April 12, 2017, at approximately 1:30pm, Deputy A. Ostazeski was dispatched to the Prince Frederick Walmart store for the report of a shoplifter in custody. He made contact with the store's loss prevention officer who advised he observed a female customer, Dana Lee, 47, of Alexandria, VA , attempting to conceal clothing items and leave the store without paying. Due to the fact that Lee is not a Maryland resident, Deputy Ostazeski transported her to the Detention Center where she was charged with Theft Less Than $100.00

On the other hand, if you are a doctor, banker, or politician, you can seemingly steal as much as you like from the taxpayers or your customers and get off with a fine and have your name in the newspaper.

Complete Family Care, P.C. Pays $250,000 to Settle Medicaid Fraud

Takoma Park Primary Care Practice Billed for Expensive Procedures but Only Performed Simple Tests

Baltimore, MD (April 18, 2017) – Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh announced today that Complete Family Care, P.C., a Takoma Park primary care practice owned by Suresh Khetan, M.D. and his wife Renu Khetan, paid $250,000 to the State of Maryland to resolve allegations that the practice engaged in a fraudulent billing scheme to increase profits.

The settlement stems from an investigation which found that, over a five-year period, Complete Family Care routinely billed Medicaid for complex blood removals and eye examinations with high reimbursement rates while actually performing only simple blood draws and eye tests with far lower reimbursement rates.

Attorney General Frosh thanked the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for their work on this case, specifically Assistant Attorney General Raja Mishra, Investigators Melinda FitzGerald and Julia Foster, and Auditor Oludolapo Osikomaiya. Attorney General Frosh also thanked the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Office of the Inspector General for its assistance.

So, if you're an individual and you steal a few bucks from a big corporation, you get the full brunt of the law against you. However, if you're a small corporation of doctors, you can steal from the taxpayer and just get a fine--no arrests, photos or fingerprints.

An even bigger example than the local story above is the recent Wells Fargo ruse where bank employees established thousands of accounts for unknowing "customers" just so the bank could collect fees and make a mint. 5,300 bankers were fired and the two executives blamed for the fraud had to pay back several million in compensation they were previously paid, but no jail time for anyone as far as I know.

Well Fargo executives were ordered to pay back $75 million after a scathing report on the company’s sales fraud scandal

Monday, April 10, 2017 10:30 AM EDT

Wells Fargo’s board said Monday that it would claw back an additional $75 million in compensation from the two executives on whom it pinned most of the blame for the company’s sales scandal: the bank’s former chief executive, John G. Stumpf, and its former head of community banking, Carrie L. Tolstedt.

In a scathing, 113-page report that made it clear that all the warning signs of the problem had been glaring, the board released the results of its six-month investigation into the conditions and culture that prompted thousands of Wells Fargo employees to create fraudulent accounts in an effort to meet aggressive sales goals.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/business/wells-fargo-pay-executives-accounts-scandal.html

The powers-that-be want us to believe that our differences are based on skin color and religious beliefs, when the real divider is one of wealth and power---the haves and the have nots.

 

[Larry Gude]

A buddy just did a consult with some doc out in Colorado, a 'concierge' sort, a term that basically means 'really expensive' and it didn't go well. He then, suspicious, did some checking. The dude was kicked out of a couple other states for Med fraud. Seems there is, in some cases, no loss of your license in general, just in the state you got busted in.

Strongest union there is; the AMA.

 

[Hijinx]

A buddy just did a consult with some doc out in Colorado, a 'concierge' sort, a term that basically means 'really expensive' and it didn't go well. He then, suspicious, did some checking. The dude was kicked out of a couple other states for Med fraud. Seems there is, in some cases, no loss of your license in general, just in the state you got busted in.

Strongest union there is; the AMA.

There is an old saying: What do you call the person who graduated at the bottom of their class in medical school?
Answer: Doctor.

Somewhere in Maryland is Maryland's most incompetent Doctor.
And people are sitting in his/her waiting room right now.

http://centerjd.org/cjrg/Numbers.pdf

How many Doctors who have had their insurance company pay out awards for malpractice are still practicing medicine.?

 

[Merlin99]

Now, if you go down to your local Wal-Mart and walk out the door with some goods and forget to pay, you'll likely get a ride in a police car handcuffed, be photographed, fingerprinted and jailed and eventually have to see a judge.

Here's a recent case from Calvert to illustrate:



On the other hand, if you are a doctor, banker, or politician, you can seemingly steal as much as you like from the taxpayers or your customers and get off with a fine and have your name in the newspaper.



So, if you're an individual and you steal a few bucks from a big corporation, you get the full brunt of the law against you. However, if you're a small corporation of doctors, you can steal from the taxpayer and just get a fine--no arrests, photos or fingerprints.

An even bigger example than the local story above is the recent Wells Fargo ruse where bank employees established thousands of accounts for unknowing "customers" just so the bank could collect fees and make a mint. 5,300 bankers were fired and the two executives blamed for the fraud had to pay back several million in compensation they were previously paid, but no jail time for anyone as far as I know.



The powers-that-be want us to believe that our differences are based on skin color and religious beliefs, when the real divider is one of wealth and power---the haves and the have nots.

Maryland doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence in their prosecutors.

 

[Chris0nllyn]

"Justice" depends on how much you have to spend on a lawyer.

 

[Hijinx]

"Justice" depends on how much you have to spend on a lawyer.

Always has, always will.

Hypothetical case. A rich powerful man goes partying one weekend. Leaves his wife and kids and goes to the beach with a woman he works with.
Lots of drinking, and they leave the party.Just for a cruise in his Oldsmobile mind you.
On the way he makes a wrong turn and runs into the water. He gets out of the car and swims to shore. Leaving his friend in the car which is partially submerged.
He swims across a channel and calls his lawyer. Not the Sheriff or authorities. Pays off the girl's parents and the Judge and goes back to Washington to continue as a U.S. Senator of Massachusetts.

 

[Inkd]

Strongest union there is; the AMA.

 

[Lurk]

How many Doctors who have had their insurance company pay out awards for malpractice are still practicing medicine.?

Quite a few actually. An insurance company can elect to pay a settlement to avoid an iffy trial. That doesn't mean the physician or practitioner did anything wrong. Happens all the time. Malpractice is infrequently the reason for a loss at trial, a settlement without trial, or charges of malpractice.

But then, your link actually produces the same argument with actual statistics.

 

[nutz]

On the other hand, if you are a doctor, banker, or politician, you can seemingly steal as much as you like from the taxpayers or your customers and get off with a fine and have your name in the newspaper.

The powers-that-be want us to believe that our differences are based on skin color and religious beliefs, when the real divider is one of wealth and power---the haves and the have nots.

I thought this was gonna be about Hillary.

 

[officeguy]

A first time theft at walmart doesn't get you jailtime. It gets you a 'released on personal recognizance' and eventually a PBJ or at worst a suspended sentence.

 

[Larry Gude]

Be careful. You might learn something.

[video=youtube;xzYgiOC9cj4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzYgiOC9cj4&t=202s[/video]

 

[Inkd]

Be careful. You might learn something.

[video=youtube;xzYgiOC9cj4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzYgiOC9cj4&t=202s[/video]

I did. I learned you are wrong, and unable to admit when you are wrong.

 

[Larry Gude]

I did. I learned you are wrong, and unable to admit when you are wrong.

Fair enough. The AMA is considered, by a much smarter man than I, to be the SECOND most powerful union.

You win.

 

[Inkd]

Fair enough. The AMA is considered, by a much smarter man than I, to be the SECOND most powerful union.

You win.

It's his opinion, key word being opinion, that the AMA is the second most powerful union. You know what they say about opinions?

 

[Larry Gude]

It's his opinion, key word being opinion, that the AMA is the second most powerful union. You know what they say about opinions?

cheers:

This is why I cautioned against you learning something. Friedman makes an irrefutable argument that the AMA is, in all the core respects, a union. And you wanna dismiss it as an opinion?

So, you don't know jack #### about unions or you don't know jack #### about the AMA? Or both?

 

[Inkd]

This is why I cautioned against you learning something. Friedman makes an irrefutable argument that the AMA is, in all the core respects, a union. And you wanna dismiss it as an opinion?

So, you don't know jack #### about unions or you don't know jack #### about the AMA? Or both?

No, he doesn't make an irrefutable argument. He makes an opinion. It's only irrefutable because you want it to be.

Answer me this. When did the AMA unionize, how many members do they have, how much do they collect in annual dues?

Being as you seem to be so knowledgeable about unions and the AMA, I'm sure you will be able to easily find this information out.

 

[black dog]

So, you don't know jack #### about unions or you don't know jack #### about the AMA? Or both?

Heck I'll play, I paid Union dues for over 20 years.. and my ex's father is a International Union Law Attorney in DC along with her sister and three brothers.. They represent abut 60+ unions and not once did I ever hear about the largest union being the AMA.
Can you show me a AMA Union Hall? Or a rental hall where they have their monthly meetings? How about a simple quarterly union dues card? How about some literature about benefits available to them. Are they part of the AFLCIO?
I'm gonna say you don't know Jack $hit about unions.

 

[Lurk]

Heck I'll play, I paid Union dues for over 20 years.. and my ex's father is a International Union Law Attorney in DC along with her sister and three brothers.. They represent abut 60+ unions and not once did I ever hear about the largest union being the AMA.
Can you show me a AMA Union Hall? Or a rental hall where they have their monthly meetings? How about a simple quarterly union dues card? How about some literature about benefits available to them. Are they part of the AFLCIO?
I'm gonna say you don't know Jack $hit about unions.

Larry's just been tokin' a little too much lately. The AMA isn't a union, it's a guild.

 

[officeguy]

Can you show me a AMA Union Hall? Or a rental hall where they have their monthly meetings? How about a simple quarterly union dues card? How about some literature about benefits available to them. Are they part of the AFLCIO?

None of these things are required elements of something being a union. The ability to engage in collective bargaining with employers is what defines a union. AMA does not have that ability. There are a few unionized physicians, mostly those working for large hospital systems in union dominated states like NY, they make up a small slice of the workforce. Both the NLRB and justices anti-trust division have ruled many times that physicians who are independent contractors or self employed can't unionize.

 

[Inkd]

None of these things are required elements of something being a union. The ability to engage in collective bargaining with employers is what defines a union. AMA does not have that ability. There are a few unionized physicians, mostly those working for large hospital systems in union dominated states like NY, they make up a small slice of the workforce. Both the NLRB and justices anti-trust division have ruled many times that physicians who are independent contractors or self employed can't unionize.

Noooooo, Milton Friedman said in the 80's that the AMA is a trade union, the 2nd largest trade union. It's irrefutable.

Which I find very interesting because the AMA did vote to unionize in the 90's, after Friedman already said they were the 2nd most powerful trade union in existence. How could they have voted to unionize if they were already a union?

Never mind the fact that I can not find one scrap of evidence of the AMA ever unionizing.