A Corporate "Culture of Fraud"

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Corporate-Culture-of-Fr-by-Dave-Lefcourt-110913-182.html

Here's a fraud case out of my neck of the woods (Columbia, Maryland) that caught my eye this morning.

It seems "Maxim Healthcare Services, Inc.", based in Columbia, and apparently one of the largest providers of home healthcare services in the country, "submitted $61 million in false claims for services to the federal government's Medicaid and Veterans Affairs health programs over an 11 year period from 1998 to 2009," <1> (which is hardly a huge sum over that amount of time when juxtaposed against the billions in fraud the banksters committed in the sub-prime mortgage bubble bonanza that burst in 2008). But wait, this gets better.

The fraud charges, both criminal and civil, had to do with "submitting claims for millions of dollars of work it didn't perform as well as operating offices that were not properly licensed.," <2> (hardly earth-shaking). But here's the kicker; investigators found "managers and workers at Maxim repeatedly modified time sheets and documents to cover up the fraud, "CREATING A CULTURE IN WHICH SUBMITTING FALSE CLAIMS BECAME COMMON PRACTICE." <3> (Emphasis added).

A "culture of fraud", that's what caught the eye of this reader, which cut across corporate, managerial and regular claims service employee lines.

More at the link --

[SharonAnn]

1. That's what HCA had before they were fined more than $1.2 BILLION for

defrauding Medicare.

A real culture of corruption.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. And they have the Koch spawn (teabagger/repuke) to continue to work against their own interests.

It's beyond the pale.

[TheWraith]

3. But wait, I'm told that there can't possibly be such a thing as fraud in Medicare/Medicaid.

That's why when Obama talks about a possible 3% budget cut it MUST be coming directly from throwing poor children and the elderly out on the street. :eyes: