Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Fake doctors ran Medicaid schemes

Excerpt from Watchdog Bytes: (click for entire article)

Medicaid scam of the day: Forget about licenses.

You might call it unnecessary regulation, but Medicaid insists that people providing health-care services actually be qualified.

Fake doctors have treated patients, with Medicaid footing the bill, though.

You might even want to check credentials on the school nurse.

AG: More than 200 seniors defrauded in home-care scam

Excerpt from Philly Burbs: (click for entire article)

An Upper Southampton man is among four suspects arrested Monday on charges of bilking more than a combined $700,000 from 200-plus seniors in a multi-pronged fraud scam involving home care, home security services and long-term care insurance.

Ross M. Rabelow, 52, of the 500 block of Jason Drive, is behind bars in lieu of $1 million cash bail on charges that include participating in a corrupt organization, theft, unfair business practices, insurance fraud, conspiracy and dealing in proceeds from unlawful activity.

Bruce Howard Cherry, 52, of Philadelphia, and Thomas J. Muldoon, 57, of Delaware County, are also in prison in lieu of similar bail on the same charges. Robert P. Lerner, 56, of Philadelphia, is in prison in lieu of $250,000 cash bail. Lerner is charged with most of the same charges except for corrupt organization.

5-year sentence for adviser who defrauded elderly

Excerpt from Orlando Sentinel: (click for entire article)

As an attorney and a financial adviser, William Abruzzino II was supposed to take care of the finances for Marlene Scippa as The Villages resident started declining fromAlzheimer's disease.

Instead, he took $202,000 for himself and his girlfriend, raiding the funds set aside for Scippa's long-term care.

Man Charged With Stealing $200,000 From Ohio Medicaid

Excerpt from NBC4i: (click for entire article)

A North Carolina man has been arrested, accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Ohio's Medicaid Program.

Attorney General Mike DeWine announced the arrest of 39-year-old Augustine Kotee in Concord, N.C., Tuesday.

A Franklin County grand jury indicted Kotee this month on 16 charges, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, receiving stolen property, theft, and falsification in a theft offense.

Schuette Announces Charges for Northern Michigan Foreclosure-Rescue Fraud

Excerpt from Attorney General Bill Schuette: (click for entire article)

Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced charges against a Holly woman for her role in a foreclosure-rescue fraud operation that scammed at least 60 victims across the state out of $250,000.  Tashia Winstanley, 38, of Holly, and her company, TLW Mortgage Solutions, face criminal charges for collecting upfront fees and impersonating a mortgage modification company.

             "Foreclosure rescue scam artists attack Michigan homeowners who are struggling financially and fighting to stay in their homes," said Schuette.  "Instead of helping families stay above water, these criminals push them back under.  We are working hard to dismantle these predatory operations and connect victims with free foreclosure assistance."

                The criminal charges come as the result of an investigation by the Attorney General after complaints against the company were filed with Attorney General Schuette's Consumer Protection Division.  The investigation revealed that from September 2009 through January 2012 Winstanley allegedly operated TLW Mortgage Solutions as a mortgage modification business.

New Md. law aims to halt financial abuse of the elderly

Excerpt from The Baltimore Sun: (click for entire article)

Maryland banks and credit unions are likely to be among the first to notice that an elderly customer is being financially exploited by a con artist or an unscrupulous relative.

So it makes sense that these institutions take part in an effort to protect older Marylanders from being ripped off. Thanks to a new state law, they will.

Starting in October, banks and credit unions here will be required to report suspected financial exploitation of Marylanders age 65 and up. They must convey their suspicions within 24 hours by phone to Adult Protective Services — part of the state's Department of Human Resources — or law enforcement and must follow up in writing. Financial institutions that fail to do so will face a penalty of as much as $5,000.

McKesson settles federal false-claim allegations

Excerpt from Bloomberg Businessweek: (click for entire article)

Federal authorities say wholesale drug distributor McKesson Corp. will pay more than $190 million to settle claims that it led Medicaid to overpay for drugs by reporting inflated prices to a publisher.

New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman and other officials said Thursday that McKesson marked up the average drug prices it reported to publisher First DataBank by 25 percent between 2001 and 2005.

Most state Medicaid programs use First DataBank information to determine what they pay for drugs.

Study: ID thieves robbing the grave; 2.5 million dead hit annually

Excerpt from The Red Tape Chronicles: (click for entire article)

Ruthless ID thieves are robbing identities even from the grave, a new study has found.

Nearly 2.5 million dead people are victims of identity theft every year, according to a data analysis by fraud prevention firm ID Analytics being made public Monday.

The study offers the first hard data about a little-understood aspect of ID theft that can cause unnecessary pain and suffering to family members already dealing with loss.

Michigan Lottery Winner Charged With Welfare Fraud

Excerpt from The Consumerist: (click for entire article)

There's been another development in the saga of the Michigan woman who won $1 million in the lottery but continued to collect food stamps. The state's attorney general announced today that the woman had been charged with welfare fraud.

According to authorities, the woman collected a total of $5,475 in public assistance between Aug. 2011 and March 2012, when the state read about her story and pulled her benefits.

Schuette, Corrigan Announce Welfare Fraud Charges Against Million-Dollar Lottery Winner

Excerpt from Attorney General Bill Schuette: (click for entire article)

Attorney General Bill Schuette and Michigan Department of Human Services Director Maura D. Corrigan today announced that the Attorney General's Criminal Division has charged a million-dollar lottery winner with two felony counts of welfare fraud after investigation revealed she failed to report her lottery winnings, as well as her employment, as required by State law governing public assistance programs.  The charges resulted from an investigation by the Michigan Department of Human Services, Office of Inspector General.

"It's simply common sense that million dollar lottery winners forfeit their right to public assistance," said Schuette.  "We will continue to work with local, state and federal authorities to uphold state laws intended to ensure wise stewardship of taxpayer dollars."

"The hard work done by our Office of Inspector General has helped make the difference in this case," said Corrigan.  "That commitment to investigation and uncovering the truth, combined with the new law recently enacted by the legislature and signed by the Governor, will make it easier to ensure that outrages involving instant millionaires on public assistance don't happen in the future."