Wonder why your health insurance premiums are so high?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2010/10/25/114308.htm

New Jersey School Chief Charged in Insurance Kickback Scheme


New Jersey School Chief Charged in Insurance Kickback Scheme
By Wayne Parry & Samantha Henry
October 25, 2010

The superintendent of New Jersey's fourth-largest school district surrendered to the FBI on Thursday and was charged with fraud and bribery over an alleged insurance-kickback scheme that federal officials called "staggering'' in its scope.

Toms River Schools Superintendent Michael Ritacco, who makes $234,000 a year from his job leading the school district, was implicated earlier this week when a school district supervisor and a Morris County insurance broker admitted in court they had been part of a scheme to inflate school insurance charges and kick back part of the money to Ritacco as bribes.

Officials from the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office announced an 18-count indictment last Thursday against Ritacco and an insurance broker, Francis Gartland, who did business with the district.

Officials say the 62-year-old Ritacco, of Seaside Park, and 69-year-old Gartland of Baltimore, Md., concealed more than $1 million in bribes between 2002 and 2010 from insurance brokers and other service providers. Court documents say the men spent money on home renovations, watches that cost tens of thousands of dollars, and other personal expenses. Ritacco also allegedly bought a girlfriend -- also on the district payroll -- a car and other gifts, including money for the college tuition of one of her relatives, according to court papers.

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You can be sure this kind of stuff is going on all over the place. Your own employer is probably doing it to you.

[pepperbear]

1. wow. $234, 000 just isn't enough to, you know, not break the law and hurt other people? n/t

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. K&R

graft is the American Corporate way.

[MichiganVote]

3. Nope, I don't wonder. They're all fuckers that's why.

[safeinOhio]

4. Good luck with the jail nurse

Mr. River. At age 62, like me, you'll be using her services a lot. Old age sucks enough without being in prison.

[InkAddict]

5. Ah, such pillars of the community...

Who could have imagined...? Sure took 'em long enough to catch on...why is that??????

I just want to :puke:

[Johnny Harpo]

6. This Scheme Sounds Like Something A Big Bank Would Do...

wait a minute...the big banks probably are doing it.

It's like somebody distributed a 'play book' on how to screw the 'little people'.

And I agree...why did it take so damn long to figure this out?

There had to be more then 3 people involved to pull this off.

[littlewolf]

7. K & R nt

[KT2000]

8. WA state paid $54 million

for a computer program to process Medicaid claims. It does not work, rejects half of the claims and has gotten to the point where doctors are threatening not to take any Medicaid patients because they are not getting reimbursed.

$54 million could have provided a lot of medical care to those who really need it. And that does not count all the man hours it takes to keep putting through claims that are mistakenly rejected.

[mrdmk]

9. Your missing the point, it works just fine...

Who the fuck pays $54 million for a computer program?

Work in process at Microsoft (unfinished projects) is at $16 million dollars in 2010.

link: http://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar10/10k_fr_not_06.html

That is pathetic and criminal!


On edit: In the article of the original OP, there was no mention of the insurance companies involved, just the public officials. Doing a quick glance at the other articles concerning kick-backs, there was no names of those companies either. What is up with that?

[KT2000]

10. Maybe I should have said "system"

(from Seattle Times) The Web-based program, ProviderOne, was $54 million more expensive and three years later than planned when it launched in May, replacing a mainframe system for processing claims submitted by health-care providers on behalf of the state's poorest patients.

"The claims aren't getting processed, so we're not getting paid," said Andrea Gannon, director of patient financial services for Valley Medical Center, which she said is awaiting payments totaling some $3.8 million from ProviderOne.

While Valley may be large enough to wait it out, some smaller health-care providers say they can't handle the disruption in their cash flow. Making matters worse, many of those calling the state to get help say they are put on hold for 45 minutes or more before a recording tells them no one is available.


There sure is a lot of protecting each other going on re: not mentioning the names of the insurance cos.

[onethatcares]

11. those guys need a tax break

I mean, hell, they'd be creating jobs left and right if they only had a tax break.