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Mar 29 (2 days ago)
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The guardianship frauds and the health care frauds are twins. The Chicago Sun-times article of today is a bit bi=polar in its attempt at being non-partisan but it is a good starting point for discussion. My comments are in red:
OPINION 03/28/2017, 12:16pm
U.S. puts profits ahead of health care for citizens
Protesters gather across the Chicago River from Trump Tower to rally against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act Friday. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
President Trump seemed to gloat as he envisioned Obamacare imploding or exploding all over the people who rely on it.
President Donald Trump | AP Photo
But he’s not the only one anxiously anticipating that event in the aftermath of the failed Obamacare repeal and replace movement in Congress. Conservative Republicans sound gleeful when they talk about insurance companies pulling out of the program, leaving consumers at the mercy of the remaining private insurers who hike their premiums.
As for Democrats, they originally designed Obamacare to crash and burn within the next few years. The idea from the beginning was to prop up the Affordable Care Act just long enough to get millions of people on its rolls, making the entitlement so much a part of the American culture that it would be political suicide for conservatives to pull the plug. This suggests bad faith in the entire program of health care, and is consistent with creating a vehicle that allows the exploitation and abuse of large numbers of the elderly and the disabled by criminals in black robes and their 18 USC 371 co-conspirators. Maybe an HONEST INVESTIGATION will uncover a link – however, there is no evidence that I am aware of. The miscreants appeared to have seized on an opportunity rather than been legislatively been handed one.
Having grown up in Chicago I never under estimate the perfidy that some of the political elite are capable.
OPINION
It looks like that scheme may have worked given the number of Republicans in the U.S. House this month who insisted on replacing Obamacare instead of simply repealing it.
The problem, of course, is that there is no realistic replacement plan. The is not a non-partisan basis for this statement. It is part of the campaign to create a bad political and economic environment for America by negative leaning and dissention creating press coverage of the Trump Administration. The fact is that there is a 700% fraud surcharge that has been promulgated and HONEST INVESTIGATIONS coupled with HONEST ENFORCEMENT efforts directed to eliminate the perniciousness of the ‘clout heavy’ participants in the frauds and elder cleansing as well as minor players.
That’s because as far as most elected officials are concerned this issue is really about political gamesmanship, not about providing Americans with quality health care and cutting the cost of prescription drugs. This is partially true. There are honest political figures in both parties who honestly believe at least some of the statements that they make – including their concern that every American have access to affordable health care.
What we have in the United States is a health care industry designed to make billions of dollars for private health insurance companies and pharmaceutical firms, while keeping workers at the mercy of employers if they want to protect their families against a medical crisis and financial disaster. This is only partially true. Health care was a perk in the early days after WW2 designed to reward workers for loyal service. Afterwards, it grew into a method to obtain better rates of for insurance by groups of people than they could obtain individually. Subsequently, the greed of the health care providers found that health insurance was a money pit. The money pit aspect of health insurance led to the boondoggle that we have today.
Trump actually seems to understand this on some level, which is why he talked about reducing the cost of prescription drugs and promised during his campaign to provide quality health care at affordable prices to all Americans..
The problem with health insurance in this country is that voters really don’t want to take the time to understand the issue. As Trump discovered after entering the White House, “it’s complicated.” The problem is that the ethically challenged members of the political parties and the media have frustrated all avenues of protest. For instance, the guardianship for profit (elder cleansing) frauds not only are rampant so that hundreds (if not thousands) of senior citizens are being isolated, stripped of their humanity, robbed of their life savings, and then murdered and NO ONE HAS BEEN INTERESTED. The GAO has done at least five reports to Congress about these frauds and nothing really tangible has occurred that thwarts the Political and Judicial elite from continuing their elder cleansing actions. Lawyers have reported criminal activities such as have occurred in In re: Sykes 09 P 4585 (Cook County, Illinois) and the only action that has occurred is that the lawyers have been disciplined and the families discouraged from complaining. (Talk to Gloria Sykes – an investigative journalist whose mother is victim Mary Sykes).
A major part of the problem is that the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries have spent fortunes on misinformation campaigns that have convinced many consumers that national health care would be a nightmare, even as seniors happily enroll in Medicare.
According to those who oppose national health insurance, our health care is best left in the hands of private companies because competition in the marketplace will keep the cost of insurance premiums down, while providing a wonderful variety of insurance options to the general public.
There is no basis in reality in such nonsense. We all know that the cost of private insurance has caused many employers stop offering health insurance as a benefit. Those that continue to offer health insurance have complained repeatedly about the soaring cost of premiums year after year.
Many have passed the increased premium costs on to their employees who see their paychecks dwindling, while at the same time reducing the coverage of the plans they offer.
Co-pays are higher and more common. Deductibles are skyrocketing. Many employees are opting to open health savings accounts to subsidize their medical costs meaning even larger out-of-pocket expenditures. We do not know anything of the kind. We know that that frauds tolerated under the current health care situation are enormous. Philip Esformes was indicted for stealing a billion dollars from Medicare in regard to several of his nursing home operations in Florida. The Illinois operations that appear to have the same MO are untouched. (ditto for similar operations in New York, California, Arizona, Pa, etc) Seth Gillman’s hospice operation here in Illinois provides another example.
And before the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was passed, insurance companies refused to insure people who were sick. The free market shut its doors on people with pre-existing conditions, or decided to charge them so much money for premiums that health insurance was simply unaffordable.
Obamacare may indeed self-destruct, leaving Americans at the mercy of the marketplace, which has none. No program for health care can survive with a 700% fraud surcharge. No program for anything can survive if the negatives are suppressed and corruption is fostered. The political elite have an incentive to foster fraud. Take a look at the nursing home vote! The operators make certain that every resident votes for the candidate that the operator chooses! Thus in addition to political contributions and other remunerations to political types the extended care (nursing home) operator offers the political elite votes with which to stay in office.
Medical care is a human right everywhere else in the free world. Only the U.S. places profit ahead of people.
The problem is corruption and 18 USCA 371 cover-up of massive health care frauds by the political and judicial elite. The JoAnne Denison disciplinary Action by the IARDC is a typical 18 USCA 371 cover -up by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission/Illinois Supreme Court. (see the MaryGSykes, NASGA, Probate Sharks, **** blogs). The record speaks for itself! The total lack of media coverage demonstrates why Americans are frustrated by our political system. Horrific crimes – such as the gold rush into Alice Gore’s mouth promulgated by a Court appointed guardian ad litem received no coverage in the media and hence no investigation by law enforcement, but it received approval from a Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois judge. (see Probate Sharks blog). The Guardian ad litem who orchestrated the quest for gold in Alice Gore’s mouth and the alleged theft of 1.5 million dollars still received appointments from Circuit Court Judges.
Ken Ditkowsky
From: kenneth ditkowsky <kenditkowsky@yahoo.com>
To: "judicialmisconduct@
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2017 2:43 PM
Subject: Re: [JudicialMisconduct] One of Bob's judges
Attention: Jerome Larkin, Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission
The IARDC's call to protection of the public in the Seth Gillman case really needs some explanation. When the IARDC was notified of the indictment of Attorney Gillman it appears that the IARDC was disinterested and did nothing. Indeed, when Attorney Denison on her blog (and others) pointed out the Gillman case and his plea of guilty it was then and only then when the IARDC started disciplinary proceedings against Gillman.
The disciplinary proceedings inspite of the plea of guilty were rather benign, until it became evident and well known that Gillman was co-operating with the Federal Authorities that the IARDC went into first gear. Then, and only then, did application made to the Illinois Supreme Court for an interim suspension of Gillman's law license.
The IARDC is charged with protecting the public from dishonest lawyers, however, it is very clear that this is not how the IARDC operates. Lawyers who expose corruption, call for honest investigations of corruption, and Lawyers who will not be browbeaten into accepting judicial corruption as a matter of policy and fact in Illinois are subject to disciplinary action. I personally was asked by an IARDC -who waived a letter I had written to the Attorney General of the United STates complaining of elder cleansing in the Cook County courts, if I was repentant for writing my 18 USCA 4 letter to the AG. Indeed, Attorney Denison by exposing judicial corruption received an interim suspension along with a three year suspension for such exposure and Lanre Amu a similar fate. (Amu's charge was verified and reiterated by Chicago Business Daily!)
We are now learning more about the Gillman affair and pursuant to Rule must complain of the felonies disclosed by the inaction of the IARDC. The following article is the basis of this addition complaint against Administrator Larkin, to wit:
BY DANIEL GAITAN | daniel@lifemattersmedia.orgCHICAGO – The owner of a now-shuttered Illinois hospice company was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in federal prison for running an elaborate $20 million hospice scheme.Passages owner Seth Gillman.Businessman and attorney Seth Gillman admitted to using his hospice company, Passages Hospice, LLC., to exploit some of Illinois’ most vulnerable.“I am ashamed of what I did and I am sorry for it and I have no excuse,” Gillman told the court, according to The Chicago Tribune.Gillman and several key staff members reportedly offered bonuses to Passages employees who participated in the multi-year scheme to fraudulently bill Medicare for hospice services.Passages was a fast-growing care networkHospice is care designed to provide comfort, not cure, to terminally ill patients in their last months or days of life.However, Passages plotted with area nursing homes to designate some patients near death — including many who were not terminally ill.This higher level care increased Passages’ Medicare reimbursement. Passages served patients throughout the Midwest and billed Medicare more than $90 million from 2008-2012.“A lot of my patients really didn’t need to be on hospice,” a former employee told Life Matters Media. “A lot of the patients that I had didn’t need to be on continuous care, and they would just shove me in there.”Gillman took home millions and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle that included luxury sports cars and “ingesting cocaine on a daily basis.”Victim’s Story
Caregiver Cindi Chadwick said she was told by employees of Passages that her sister was dying and had only weeks left to live. They encouraged Chadwick to enroll Janet Schumpert, who is blind, deaf and mentally ill, into their hospice program.“She was a prime victim for them,” Chadwick told LMM. Schumpert was a resident of Asta Care Center, which Passages owned.“They had told me that she had Stage IV esophageal cancer, so they only gave her six to eight weeks to live,” Chadwick said. “They called in Passages Hospice, and naturally, I went along with it. Who is going to say that somebody has cancer when they don’t?”Chadwick became suspicious after six months of hospice care had passed, and Schumpert appeared fine without receiving chemotherapy. Soon after, she set up a care plan meeting with the nursing home. At that time, she was told that her sister had thyroid cancer instead.When a news report about Gillman’s fraud case appeared on her Facebook feed, she began to put the pieces together. “I got a call from her nurse who said, ‘I’m no longer going to be treating your sister,’ ” Chadwick explained.Schumpert just turned 60 and is cancer-free. Even though Chadwick paid for funeral arrangements, she is most upset about the emotional costs associated with believing her sister would soon die.Motivated By Greed
Last year, Gillman pleaded guilty to felony health care fraud. He also agreed to an $18 million civil judgment to be paid to the federal government, along with $9 million in restitution to Medicare.U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin said Gillman was motivated by greed.In November 2013, during an event celebrating Passages’ programs, Gillman told LMM every patient is like a grandmother.“Give patients everything they need, even that little extra that makes life worth living.”That turned out not to be the case.
If the IARDC and Mr. Larkin had done any investigation of Attorney Gillman they would have known (or should have known) of the serious crimes being committed. Pursuant to Attorney Rules, Mr. Larkin and the IARDC should have be active in inducing Mr. Gillman and those who worked with him to co-operate fully with law enforcement.
Unfortunately as illustrated by the miscreant behavior that has been noted in the Sykes, Gore, Wyman **** and other cases the IARDC has been engaging in a 18 USCA 371 cover-up rather than working for the interests of the Illinois public. An HONEST INVESTIGATION IS HEREWITH CALLED! We disagree with Mr. Larkin and the exposure of corruption (including but not limited to judicial corruption) is akin to "yelling fire in a crowded theater!"
Ken Ditkowsky
