Category: health issues

Largest Medicaid fraud bust in DC history involves immigrants from Africa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Great!  More immigrant “entrepreneurs” for ‘Welcoming America’ to brag about!

We just mentioned yesterday in our widely read post on St. Cloud, MN that Somalis are busy setting up ‘home health care’ businesses and we have seen previous news accounts about how easy it is for such businesses to defraud the US taxpayer.

From Cameroon to DC: Here we come to rip-off some American taxpayers!

In this DC case, it appears that most of the fraudsters nabbed were from Cameroon according to (not surprisingly!) the last line in the story at CBS.DC.  (It is very rare for the nationalities of immigrant law-breakers to be mentioned at all, so for this we are grateful.)

Many of those charged are immigrants from Cameroon in west Africa, but authorities did not go into detail about their nationalities.

Don’t you think there should be a law requiring that the public be informed about what LEGAL immigration program allowed these aliens to enter the US in the first place?  It is always my first question!

Few of these crooks would be refugees because we don’t take many refugees from Cameroon.  Nor does DC resettle many refugees although Maryland surely does.  So how did they get here?

From CBS.DC.   Hat tip:  Bob.  Emphasis is mine:

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — Federal authorities say 25 people have been charged in a wide-ranging scheme to obtain millions of dollars in fraudulent Medicaid payments from the District of Columbia government.

U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen calls it the largest health-care fraud case in the city’s history. It involved bogus claims for home care services, a category of Medicaid claim that has grown dramatically in the city over the past eight years. Machen says fraud is largely responsible for the increase in those claims. The uptick in billings for home care — from $40 million in 2006 to $280 million last year — was part of what tipped off authorities to illegal activity, U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen said.

“We concluded that much of the growth was due to aggressive networks of fraudsters paying kickbacks to beneficiaries to manufacture false claims for nonexistent services,” Machen said, later adding: “Medicaid fraud in the District of Columbia is at epidemic levels.”

Ms. Bikundi’s upscale home in Maryland!
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/02/florence-bikundi-arrested-in-medicaid-fraud-crackdown-100429.html

Among those charged Thursday was Florence Bikundi, 51, of Bowie, Md., the owner of a home care agency in suburban Maryland who had lost her nursing license and was ineligible to receive Medicaid payments. Authorities say that by using different names, she was able to bill the city for $75 million in Medicaid payments.

Prosecutors say many of the defendants persuaded patients to fake illness or injury so they could bill Medicaid for home care they didn’t receive. Some of those patients received kickbacks, authorities said, although no patients have been charged.

[….]

Machen said it wasn’t clear whether any of those payments went to legitimate home care services, but Bikundi was able to amass significant personal wealth, authorities said. Among the property seized from her were millions of dollars from 46 bank accounts, a 7,300-square-foot home valued at $927,000 and five luxury vehicles.

Sometimes I think there are fraud training programs abroad before the immigrant even gets here—maybe a Scams 101, or Fraud-planning for Dummies—-because some of the ones we’ve written about on these pages require a level of sophistication and an infusion of seed money that one wouldn’t expect your average migrant to be blessed with.

Just a reminder!  We are posting stories like this one at a new facebook page entitled ‘Diversity’s Dark Side.’  Check it out and “Like” it, here.

HHS Office of Inspector General website hosts immigrant fraudsters most-wanted list

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is cool!  Have fun perusing the Department of Health and Human Services OIG website for immigrants who ripped-off the US taxpayer and fled.  Hat tip:  Creeping Sharia.  Many of the cases involve health care fraud which is surely going to get worse under Obamacare.

Here is a portion of just one of the profiles:

In January 2012, Yousef Kurdy was indicted on charges of health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, receipt of kickbacks for patient referrals, income tax evasion, aiding and abetting, and criminal forfeiture. Investigators believe that Kurdy fraudulently billed Medicare and Medi-Cal over $150,000.

[….]

In January 2012, an arrest warrant was issued for Kurdy, who indicated that he would self-surrender, but failed to show up for his initial court appearance. Consequently, he is considered a fugitive at large. Investigators believe that he may be residing in Syria.

LOL!  Watch the crook return with a new name as a Syrian refugee!

Immigrant-perpetrated fraud is a side interest here at RRW and with the help of a reader from Kentucky, you can now help spread the news about scams and frauds run by those we “welcomed” to America at a new facebook page:  Diversity’s Dark Side. ‘Like’ it here!

Question for the Left: ‘Does an increase in the number of leprosy cases in US add to multi-culti diversity?’

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is what writer, Jeannie DeAngelis, at American Thinker asked yesterday in a piece entitled, ‘Do Liberals Care if Third World Illnesses Infect Americans?’   (Hat tip: Judy).

Leprosy! Multicultural disease diversity coming to a town near you?

Apparently inspired by something Obama’s old pal Bill Ayers said about how we white Europeans are responsible for knocking off Native Americans about 500 years ago, DeAngelis asked that question.

My only quibble with DeAngelis’s otherwise thorough accounting of the rise in diseases third worlders are bringing to America is that she attributes the spread solely to illegal immigrants.

With a health issues category of 197 posts on the subject, I can assure readers that the diseases are not all coming from the ILLEGAL aliens, but many are getting through via LEGAL refugees (and other legal entrants) not properly screened,  or with no medical treatment follow-up.  In many cases refugees are even allowed into the US with TB and HIV/AIDS.

Blogger Jeannie DeAngelis at American Thinker (emphasis mine):

One of the favorite pastimes of liberalism is to try to inflict guilt on people of European descent for being part of a lineage that they believe, in the words of Bill Ayers at the Dartmouth Debate with Dinesh D’Souza, “murdered” the American Indians by way of contagious disease.

Calling it the “European Invasion,” liberals believe that prior to Christopher Columbus’ arrival American Indians were virtually disease-free.  Never mind that syphilis, which originated in the New World, was brought back to Europe, where spirochete bacterium was not present until after Columbus and his fellow discoverers returned in 1493.

The Columbian theory concludes that invaders from across the sea brought to the Americas the scourge of bubonic and pneumonic plague, chicken pox, cholera, diphtheria, influenza, measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, typhus, tuberculosis, and whooping cough.

Even though Indian tribes were slaughtering each other, lefties argue that their lack of immunity was solely responsible for American Indians dying en masse after exposure to infectious diseases, and are persuaded that 80-90 percent of the Native American population perished after Europeans landed in the New World.

Whether that scenario is truth or fiction, there remains a problem with the argument.  Liberals incessantly harp on the fate of unsuspecting American Indians being infected with European maladies, yet that outrage doesn’t jibe with their insistence that amnesty be granted to illegal aliens, some of whom carry diseases eradicated long ago from North America.

At the turn of the century, immigrants coming to America through Ellis Island were screened for disease, just as law-abiding persons immigrating via legal channels today require a medical exam as part of the process. Meanwhile, irresponsible politicians on the left, who portray Christopher Columbus as a marauding murderer, choose to ignore the influx of modern-day intruders carrying with them highly-contagious Third World diseases into the US.  [As I said, Legal immigrants/refugees are bringing in diseases too—ed]

[….]

The hypocrisy is stunning.

Leprosy increased from 900 cases in the US to 9,000 in 3 years!  Did you know that?

The Biblical scourge of leprosy, a “slow-growing bacillus…parasite with a tropism for peripheral nerves, skin, and mucous membranes…upper respiratory tract, anterior chamber of the eye, and the testes,” is also within our borders.  In 2002, there were only 900 total cases of leprosy in the US. In the next three years there were 9,000 , mostly in states with the largest immigrant populations.

[….]

Do those hostile to 15th century European exploration feel that although it was once rare in America, an increase of reported leprosy cases adds to the multicultural diversity liberals embrace with such affection?

[….]

So, once again the self-righteous left proves they are the champions of idiotic double standards.  They condemn European-descended whites for murdering Native Americans centuries ago, while arguing on behalf of illegals currently spreading a plethora of deadly Third World afflictions with the potential to infect and kill millions of Americans.

Yes, but you see in Leftists’ mean-spirited eyes we white people deserve it—it’s payback time!

There is more, DeAngelis tells readers about other diseases increasing in America and reminds you to think about those shopping cart handles the next time you grab one in ethnically diverse neighborhoods.

I have a question for Wyoming!  How are your health departments in Campbell County (Gillette) and Natrona County (Casper)?  Are they ready for the diversity of health issues coming their way?

To states and cities planning to “welcome” refugees: refugee healthcare at crisis stage

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Weren’t we told Obamacare was going to take care of all the poor uninsured people?  I guess not according to this story, one more in a series, from reporter Erika Beras on refugees without health care and insurance in Pennsylvania.  Beras’ other stories are here.

From New America Media (Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’).  This is a long report but well worth reading.  Is your refugee contractor going to help care for the uninsured or dump them (after the federal money runs out) on your state and city?  On your local hospital?

Wyoming, are you ready for this?

Top four resettlement states for Bhutanese refugees as of 2012: PA, TX, NY, and GA.
http://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/profiles/bhutanese/population-movements/

Just one of the featured refugees is Mira a Bhutanese refugee with lots of health problems and on a suicide watch.

Mira Chhetri knows all too well the perils of being uninsured. Chhetri, 23, came to the U.S. with her husband a couple years ago after spending most of her life in refugee camps in Nepal.

In her first few months here, she had ovarian cysts removed. The procedure was expensive, but like all of her health care needs at the time, it was covered by federal refugee medical assistance.  [US taxpayer funded!—ed]

All refugees have health care coverage for the first eight months they are in the U.S. But when the eight months are over, if they don’t qualify for Medicaid or disability or have a job that provides them health care, they are at a loss.

“After eight months they are like any poor American, low-income American,” said Leslie Aizenman, who runs Refugee Services at Jewish Family and Children’s Services, one of the four local agencies tasked with acclimating new refugees to Pittsburgh.

After their medical assistance ended, Chhetri and her husband were uninsured. They both made just above minimum — too much to qualify for Medicaid. Chhetri still had pending surgeries.

Before you read this below, know that there is nothing that precludes a resettlement contractor from raising PRIVATE funds to help offset the medical costs of those it brings to your city.

The U.S. State Department issues guidelines for what the resettlement agencies have to provide refugees. But when it comes to health care, Aizenman said it’s open to interpretation.

“As regarding medical care there are three sentences about what we must do for newly arriving refugees,” she said.

The agencies must make sure refugees get an entry physical in the first 30 days, and they have to address acute medical issues.

In Pennsylvania, before 2009, there wasn’t even a standardized physical exam. Physicians generally just checked for tuberculosis, parasites and sexually transmitted diseases. They also made sure that refugees got immunizations.   [Now that Pennsylvania gets so many refugees, they have stricter physical exam requirements.—ed]

Bhutanese refugees are committing suicide at alarmingly high rates (see our archive).

In Mira Chhetri’s case, in the last couple years, she and her husband have moved in and out of jobs, obtaining and losing health insurance along the way.

Along with her outstanding physical pain, in February, while she was uninsured, she attempted suicide. She spent a few days at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Then, she received a bill for more than $8,000 in care.

Before yours becomes a “welcoming” resettlement city, get all the facts about what the ‘diversity’ is going to cost you!

Top ten languages spoken by refugees admitted to US (2008-2013)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars! 

What did convicted murderer Esar Met’s translation services cost the taxpayers of Utah?

Note especially to our Wyoming and Toledo, Ohio readers!

When your “welcoming” community is preparing to open its arms to refugees for the first time, remember it is required by federal law that your local government is responsible for the cost of educating the kids (don’t forget the ESL budget), and for providing interpreters for medical services (refugees come with HIV/AIDS and TB, need costly meds) and for any court proceedings (how much did that recent refugee murder trial cost Utah or the Colorado rape trial cost?).

One huge problem that happened near where I live is that fire and rescue had an emergency involving a refugee they were not aware of, and due to a language barrier an unnecessarily expensive and frightening ‘rescue’ occurred because they thought the woman had Ebola (a disease first discovered in the Congo)!

Here is some useful data for your consideration.  Local governments! Better get your translators lined up!

Top ten languages spoken by recent refugees!  (from WRAPSnet)  Note Arabic is number one!

Rank Language FY 2008 FY 2009 FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 Total
1 Arabic 9,767 13,675 15,199 7,372 9,938 17,233 73,184
2 Nepali 5,302 13,450 12,355 14,993 15,114 9,164 70,378
3 Sgaw Karen 7,460 3,331 5,833 6,521 4,148 5,011 32,304
4 Somali 2,403 3,879 4,787 3,057 4,763 7,295 26,184
5 Spanish 4,243 4,831 4,951 2,976 2,075 4,429 23,505
6 Chaldean 2,897 3,783 2,550 1,392 1,790 1,954 14,366
7 Burmese 3,769 2,040 1,414 1,290 1,146 1,523 11,182
8 Armenian 3,625 3,444 1,798 747 387 875 10,876
9 Kayah 0 5,267 1,922 1,179 595 784 9,747
10 Other Minor Languages 1,787 1,913 1,667 673 1,005 1,277 8,322
Report Total 41,253 55,613 52,476 40,200 40,961 49,545 280,048