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| PREDATOR ALERTS and Consumer Protection Service HEALTH CARE SCANDAL by Stanley C. Baldwin Posted August 26, 2009 It should be obvious by now that health care reform is a complicated and controversial issue. Just the sort of issue that calls for civility toward those who see things differently than we do. One problem getting relatively little attention in the debate is the estimated 200,000 patients of all ages being sent to early graves every year by medical mistakes. We are not talking an occasional unnecessary death here. We are talking about killing more people than do auto accidents, breast cancer and AIDS combined.
In 1999, a federal study entitled To Err is Human found that medical errors in United States hospitals were responsible for an estimated 98,000 unnecessary deaths per year. To Err Is Human took a kind and irenic approach to the problem, saying that people in the medical care field will make mistakes because they are human. The study urged implementation of 34 failsafe measures to reduce lethal mistakes by half within five years.
Now, not five but ten years later, most hospitals have yet to adopt the new standards. One of the authors of To Err Is Human, Dr. Lucian Leape, says the needed change was stymied by "a lack of political leadership and the health care lobby's vested interest in maintaining business as usual, especially secrecy surrounding dangerous medical errors."
Now, Hearst News Syndicate has released a new report, Dead By Mistake, that says 100,000 deaths still occur annually from preventable medical errors. And another 100,000 deaths result from mostly preventable hospital-acquired infections.
Think of the immense harm these medical mistakes inflict. Besides the thousands of dead, multiplied thousands of grieving friends and relatives have their hearts broken. Husbands and wives are deprived of their spouses. Parents lose children who have been the light of their lives. Families face economic devastation because the chief bread-winner has been taken. Parents, now suddenly single, are left to struggle with crushing emotional loss at the very time their children need them most. All needlessly! Yes, to err is human, but to ignore the cost in human suffering in order to preserve the deadly status quo sounds criminal to me. And if it isn't cruelty to humans, I don't know what is. Besides which, we haven't even mentioned the thousands more patients injured but not killed by medical mistakes. To glimpse the human dimensions of this story, click www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/deadbymistake/6556754.html and read some of the report for yourself. The account of the "60 Minutes" producer who died from hospital overuse of opiates including dilaudid especially hit home with me since my wife's timely intervention spared me from the same thing.
The thousands of deaths and injuries from medical mistakes also impact the issue of tort reform. When "greedy lawyers" sue for huge sums, it raises health care costs because of the need for expensive malpractice insurance. Doctors also incur the added costs of doing expensive unneeded tests just to protect themselves from lawsuits. But wronged patients need fair consideration too, and it's not all bad to have a jury of one's peers decide whether and to what degree a person was injured by medical malpractice. (For a good discussion of the pros and cons of tort reform see "The ABCs of Tort Reform" at Bankrate.com,)
In any case, there's a better way than tort reform to reduce malpractice costs. Stop the 200,000 needless hospital deaths! Not only would medical providers avoid costly lawsuits but patients would live to see another day, a nice humanitarian "side-effect" to go with the cost saving. On the other hand, if we cut costs by excluding stiff penalties for malpractice, it can only make providers more cavalier than some already are.
Meanwhile, until the medical system gets fixed, you need to look out for yourself and your loved ones. Twenty tips to help you do that are offered by the US Department of Health and Human Services. To make these easily accessible to you, here is the site: just click on www.ahrq.gov/consumer/20tips.htm. You and I have three choices about our own health care at this point: 1. We can shrug off the danger, blindly trust the health care system, and just hope we aren't victims of medical mistakes. 2. We can stay away from doctors and hospitals as long as we can still sit up and take nourishment, hoping for the best. 3. We can inform ourselves about wise ways to employ the health care system to make the best and safest use of what is while we wait and work for what should be.
I'll take #3.
Jury Duty Scam (posted Jan. 25, 2009) Reported by Gary Palmer Though this scam has been around since 2005, it remains active.The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest
that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer
asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth
so he or she can verify the information and cancel the
arrest warrant Give out any of this information and bingo;
your identity was just stolen.
The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including
Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado. This (swindle) is
particularly insidious because they use intimidation over
the phone to try to bully people into giving information by
pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and the
federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their
web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.
Check it out here:
> http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm
> And here: http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp
UnitedHealth Caught Again (Posted Jan. 14, 2009; see earlier postings below)New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday, January 13, 2009 that UnitedHealth has agreed to spend $50 million to reform its billing practices. In essence the company has rigged its charges for years. Besides the $50 million, Cuomo said he would seek millions of dollars in restitution to policy holders for what he called a decade of consumer fraud. Cuomo further charged that ,”It is not an overdramatization to say that it is a matter of life and death,” suggesting that the company’s misdeeds have had lethal consequences. (Sources: Reuters, New York Daily News) Next time you see an ad on TV praising UnitedHealth because it is the only health plan approved by AARP, ask yourself whether that really says something good about UnitedHealth or merely something bad about AARP. Gift Cards (Posted Dec. 18, 2008) Buying someone a gift card can be a good idea. It seems less crass than giving money. It helps avoid giving people gifts they don't need or want since thay can use it for anything the particular merchant supplies. In the case of distant recipients it saves you considerable mailing expense. It simplifies your shopping duties. One big down side this year is the fragile state of the economy. There is a fair chance that the merchant who issues your gift card may be out of business before the card is presented for redemption. In that case, the gift card becomes worhless. The only gift, at that point, was the money you gave the merchant for a worthless piece of plastic. Gift cards have been tilted in the merhants' favor even before this economic crisis. A significant number of such cards end up unused, which means the merchant got the money for nothing. In addition, the merchant gets paid upfront for something he may not deliver for months, thus getting interest-free use of your money. Some better merchants now offer incentives with gift cards. For example, McGrath's Fish House offers a $5 credit to those who buy a $25 gift card. Businesses need to make a profit but customers deserve a fair shake too. Sharing the extra proceeds gift cards generate seems only fair. Free Credit Reports (Posted Nov. 29, 2008) There are many offers of "free" credit reports but almost all of them have strings attached. Usually you must sign up for some ongoing credit monitoring service at a fee. The fact is you can get a credit report once a year from each of the major credit agencies, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, absolutely free simply by asking for it. It's the law. You don't need any other agency or service to get it. This free annual copy of your report does not, however, include your credit score.
The "catch" with most free credit report and credit score offers is sometimes hidden in very small print and disguised by repeated insistence that the service really is free.
Here is lesson number 1 in learning to spot bad deals. Read the fine print. Then ask yourself why the information is in fine print. Be aware that most of the fine print is innocuous--nothing to make the offer a bad deal. But hidden in the fine print you will find the catch if there is one.
Of course, it helps to know what to look for. In this case, look for a requirement to sign up for further services.
Update on "Health Insurance That Won't Pay" (Nov. 24, 2008, See original, after 'UPS Scam," below) Over one year ago, we reported here on Medicare supplement plans and how they were guilty of fraud and consumer abuse. Notably, as candidate for President, Barack Obama several times cited the money Medicare pays to these supplement plans as being a big waste of taxpayer funds and one he would end. New studies confirm his claims. Initially, these plans were supposed to save Medicare about 5% but they in fact cost the government 13% more than Medicare alone. If that weren't bad enough, the plans don't save consumers either but actually increase costs borne by beneficiaries over what they would spend if they relied on Medicare alone. Plans such as AARP's United Health advertise they "could save you thousands of dollars" over Medicare alone. Yes, they "could," but it's highly unlikely even if possible under just the right circumstances. They also "could" cost you your life through denied services. AARP wants you to call them so they can direct you to the "right plan" for you. If you do call, don't expect the "right plan" to be Medicare only or any plan that competes with AARP. Their ads tout the "fact" that you can rely on them because it's AARP. Read the original entry about that, below, and ask yourself if AARP deserves your confidence. (Sources: New York Times News Service, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission) UPS Delivery Scam (Submitted by Joyce Tomanek, Nov. 12, 2008) The newest virus circulating is the UPS Delivery Failure. You will receive an email from UPS Packet Service along with a packet number. NOTE: The word packet is misspelled on this line. It will say that they were unable to deliver a package sent to you on such and such a date. It then asks you to print out the invoice copy attached. DON'T TRY TO PRINT THIS. IT LAUNCHES THE VIRUS! Pass this warning on to all your PC operators at work and home. This virus has caused millions of dollars in damage in the past few days. Check it out on Snopes.
Please Note: To check on internet myths, scams, legends go to www.snopes.com. Click on one of the icons for subject matter or enter your specific area of concern in the search box. (This information provided by SPCH Charter Member Jeanne Halsey.) Though there is some overlap of our page with Snopes, our site will focus more on mainstream predatory practices. "Often, when we hear the word predator, we think pedophile or rapist or con artist. However, predators also include loan sharks, shady business people, welfare cheaters, insurance companies that won’t pay, and crooked corporate executives." (A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to Save Civilization, page 42)
Health Insurance That Won’t Pay Posted 10/30/2007 by Stanley Baldwin
In July, Medicare found that a small private health insurance company in Florida posed “an imminent and serious threat” to its 11,000 customers. The company actually endangered lives by denying benefits that subscribers urgently needed. Though more serious an offense than most, this was far from an isolated case of insurance company misbehavior. In fact, eleven companies have been fined since just last March, including three of the largest: UnitedHealth, Humana, and Wellpoint.
UnitedHealth was found to have improperly denied claims. Wellpoint had a backlog of 354,000 unanswered claims and took an average of 27 minutes to answer calls from members. Humana agents gave out false information about their plans and the company did not promptly respond to complaints. Their reason? Get this: they had so many complaints they couldn’t keep up.
These facts don’t begin to tell you the human suffering such dereliction of duty inflicts. Just imagine. You have the trauma of a major medical event to deal with and then have the hospital badgering you for payment and threatening your credit rating because your insurance company denies your claim. You seek redress from the company and wait on the phone for 27 minutes just to talk with someone. Likely as not, that person will then refer you to another. And another.
Believe me, the misbehavior of insurance companies is anything but a bunch of statistics when you are the victim. A few years ago I broke my back in a fall from a scaffold. I instructed the ambulance attendants to take me to Providence Medical Center, which was designated under my health plan. Instead, they took me to Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital. When I protested, they said Providence had no trauma center, and, because I might have other internal injuries, Providence would transfer me to OHSU immediately even if they took me there.
At OHSU, I was in bad shape and getting worse by the hour. It was a rough five days before I could be transferred home for a long recuperation. And then a huge bill came. The insurance company had refused to pay because I had not gone to the designated hospital. I explained that I was taken to OHSU contrary to my wishes. The claims adjuster wasn’t even civil about it. “What did they do?” she sneered, “Lock you in?” I told her that was hardly necessary since I was totally incapacitated.
I ultimately prevailed after days of insurance-company inflicted trauma on top of my injuries. Multiply my experience by thousands of patients and increase it in magnitude of suffering by who knows how much and you get an inkling of how the health insurance industry mirrors the lament of poet Robert Burns: “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.”
Now I see that UnitedHealth has become the healthcare insurance agency of AARP. I am less than confident about that arrangement, since UnitedHealth/AARP, so far as I can determine, is still governed by the same profit motives that make greed their major temptation. AARP is no charity as some think. It is a business, and one whose performance is rated unsatisfactory by the Better Business Bureau. In 2005, AARP took in more than $9 million, and their president made over $785,000. That computes to wages of over $2150 per day for every one of the 365 days in a year.
Now with the vast sums AARP will bring into its coffers through UnitedHealth, I'd guess the boss might get a raise. And people who carry UnitedHealth/AARP insurance? Maybe they will no longer be denied legitimate claims. Maybe. (For more information, including a list of 794 articles on medicare-related fraud just since June of 2006, click on www.tracerlock.com/browse-news-feed.cgi?id=56494&subpage=1. The articles deal with all sorts of fraud against Medicare and Medicaid, not just that of insurance companies. At the date of this posting, however, the newest article reports a raid by 200 federal agents against the offices of Wellcare. The articles dealing with other kinds of Medicare fraud are useful to consumers as well, such as the one about the Scooter Store and its fraudulent TV scheme. Just go to the site and use the search feature for Scooter.) Sources: New York Times News Service, October 7, 2007 (Robert Pear, based on Medicare audits)
Better Business Bureau, Washington, D.C.
IRS Refund Scam (posted 10/24/2007) Watch for an email purportedly from the IRS offering you a tax refund. This is a sophisticated scam. It looks authentic, with the IRS seal and all. The predators try to protect it from being reported by making it difficult to forward or copy. Below is the content (but not the exact format of one such email.) **************************************************************************************************************** Internal Revenue Service Department Notice
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that
you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $268.32.
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 3-6 days in order to process it.
A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons.
For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.
http://www.irs.gov/small/businesses/international/refunds/pass.php?cmd=apply_refund
Please Note:
If we do no receive the appropriate records within 48 hours, then we will assume this email is invalid and the refund will be suspended.
We appreciate your support and understanding and thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Regards,
Internal Revenue Service Department
***************************************************************************************************************
This is just another attempt to get your personal information to defraud you. The clues: 1. It comes by email, not via the United States Postal Service 2. It lists no account number for you and is vague about when you filed or what kind of return it was. 3. It rushes you to respond quickly, within 48 hours. 4. It misspells the word not in the "Please Note" section. | |
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