Forensics Talk

Report: Government Paid More Than $47B in Medicare Claims

2009-11-15T06:12:20-05:00

A new federal report shows the government paid more than $47 billion in questionable Medicare claims.

by A/P

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government paid more than $47 billion in questionable Medicare claims including medical treatment showing little relation to a patient's condition, wasting taxpayer dollars at a rate nearly three times the previous year.

Excerpts of a new federal report, obtained by The Associated Press, show a dramatic increase in improper payments in the $440 billion Medicare program that has been cited by government auditors as a high risk for fraud and waste for 20 years.

It's not clear whether Medicare fraud is actually worsening. Much of the increase in the last year is attributed to a change in the Health and Human Services Department's methodology that imposes stricter documentation requirements and includes more improper payments -- part of a data-collection effort being ordered government-wide by President Barack Obama this coming week to promote "honest budgeting" and accurate statistics.

Still, the fiscal 2009 financial report -- covering the first few months of the Obama administration -- highlights the challenges ahead for a government that is seeking in part to pay for its proposed health care overhaul by cracking down on Medicare fraud. While noting that several new anti-fraud efforts were beginning, the government report makes clear that "aggressive actions" to date aimed at reducing improper payments had yielded little improvement. . . Read More

Can You Predict Lethal Intimate Partner Violence?

2009-11-11T06:42:17-05:00

Harvard Kennedy School/Ash Institute

Webinar: Can You Predict Lethal Intimate Partner Violence?

November 12, 3p-5p

November 12, 2009: 3 – 5 pm (EST)

~This webinar takes place online. Registration required, and free of charge.~

Of all women murdered in the United States, 40-50 percent is murdered by their intimate partners and 45 percent occur when the woman is trying to leave her abusive partner.

Women threatened with a gun are 20 times more likely to be murdered.

Approximately 1.3 million women are physically assaulted by an intimate partner per year in the United States.

Practitioners and researchers have built strong partnerships to understand and prevent intimate partner violence. In this expert webinar, co-sponsored with the National Institute of Justice, you will learn about the Danger Assessment (DA) and how this tool is changing the way police in Baltimore, Maryland are addressing domestic violence. What Baltimore is doing may help your jurisdiction. Ample time will be allocated for audience Q&A.

The discussion will be moderated by Andy Klein, Ph.D., Senior Research Analyst with Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. The panel includes:

Marci Van De Mark, LCSW-C - Assistant Director, Adult & Community Services Division, Baltimore County Department of Social Services
Jacquelyn Campbell, Ph.D., RN - Researcher; Anna D. Wolf Chair & Professor, Department of Community Public Health at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
Rene Renick, MA, LPC, EMBA - Director of Programs and Operations, National Network to End Domestic Violence

Register now - Please fill out some basic information if you are interested in attending.

Instructions - Review these instructions and practice logging in ahead of time (Try it now!).

Resources - Links to resources related to this event (this list may be updated periodically as the event nears).

Questions? Contact us.

"Let Juries Determine Sex Offenders’ Fate" (?)

2009-11-11T06:32:31-05:00

Sentencing Law & Policy

The title of this post is the headline of this interesting new editorial in the Boston Globe. Here is how it begins and ends:

Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone wants state lawmakers to give juries more say in whether some sex offenders should be civilly committed after completing their criminal sentences. It’s a reasonable proposal that could help gain broader community acceptance of verdicts in an explosive area of the law.
In Massachusetts, convicted sex offenders who complete their sentences get to choose whether a judge or jury will determine if they suffer from a mental abnormality that makes them a likely risk to reoffend. Such a finding results in confinement and, equally important, treatment in Bridgewater State Hospital. Leone wants the Legislature to change the law so that either the defendant or the prosecutor can demand a jury trial, as is the case in other civil matters. Leone notes that juries in Middlesex County since 1999 have been almost twice as likely as judges to commit offenders for periods that can last from one day to life. But juries are not acting reflexively, either. In a quarter of the cases decided by jury, the convicted sex offender was found to be no longer sexually dangerous. . . Read More

Medicare Fraud: One Of The Most Profitable Crimes In U.S.

2009-11-02T02:35:56-05:00

Medical News Today

Article Date: 27 Oct 2009 - 3:00 PDT

"Medicare "provides a rich and steady income stream for criminals who are constantly finding new ways to steal a sizable chunk of the half trillion dollars that are paid out each year in Medicare benefits," 60 Minutes reports. "In fact, Medicare fraud - estimated now to total about $60 billion a year - has become one of, if not the most profitable, crimes in America." Medicare fraud leaves little evidence: an FBI agent in South Florida said "the only visible evidence of the crimes are the thousands of tiny clinics and pharmacies that dot the low-rent strip malls. You don't even know they're there because there's never anyone inside. No doctors, no nurses and no patients." Yet one of those offices, a "tiny medical supply company" charged Medicare "almost $2 million in July and a half million dollars while 60 Minutes was there in August, but we never found anybody inside, and our phone calls were never returned."'Read More

Welcome to Forensics Talk!

2009-10-25T07:54:17-04:00

Hello everyone, I'm Kathleen

For those who are not familiar with this blog site, welcome!

When people find out I'm a forensic nurse, I often get the same response: Oh, CSI! Well ... no, not exactly.

While I've heard the show certainly has some entertaining moments, in real life, cases aren't solved in an hour. Nor are they solved by only a handful of people managing every single aspect of the case.

    Forensics is the application of science to the law and it actually encompasses many fields, many different types of investigations, and a multitude of professionals - from the police and detectives to crime scene technicians; from medical examiners to emergency response personnel and crime lab experts -



      ... to forensic nurses, private investigators and Accident Investigators; from criminal profilers to forensic meteorologists, and Medical Board and Fraud investigators.

It's an intricate web of professionals whose varied expertise can be paramount to the success of any one case.

No one can stand alone. We bring together a variety of backgrounds and rely on each other to help get the job done. This is what makes this field so fascinating to me. Nothing is static and there is always so much to learn from each other.

It's for that reason that I created this weblog. The goal is to exchange news, commentary, and information related to the application of forensics to many different fields, so as to be both interesting and informative for professionals and the general public alike.

   I write my own posts when time allows, using primarily authoratative sources and experts. My posts are located in the Pages section on the left and in the archives. There are also many excerpts and links to original articles with information on:

Forensic nursing
Trauma and accident investigation
Workplace injury, violence
Environmental hazards, Emergency Response System
Domestic Violence, sexual assault, child & elder abuse
Forensic Psychiatry, behavior disorders, clinical trials
Crime and the criminal justice system
Latest court decisions
Latest medical news
Medico- legal Death Investigation
Health Care & Insurance Fraud

Read More

Cell Phone Video Shows Police Beating of Student

2009-10-25T06:19:55-04:00

YahooNews!

A/P Associated Press

5 mins ago

SAN JOSE, Calif. – " A cell phone video that shows police officers repeatedly hitting an unarmed university student with batons and a Taser gun has prompted a criminal investigation into the officers' conduct, a San Jose police spokesman said.

The video, posted by the San Jose Mercury News on its Web site late Saturday, shows one officer hitting 20-year-old Vietnamese student Phuong Ho with a metal baton more than 10 times, including once on the head. Another officer is seen using his Taser gun on the San Jose State math major.

The final baton strike in last month's incident appears to take place after handcuffs have been attached to Ho's wrists.

"It takes me back to the day I saw the Rodney King video on TV," said Roger Clark, a police expert and a retired lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

The last baton strike ought to bring a felony charge, Clark said.

Officers arrested Ho on suspicion of assaulting one of his roommates. He was not armed when police arrived and he told the newspaper he didn't resist arrest. . . " Read More