Medicare Fraud Rose Dramatically During COVID

Close up shot Covid vaccine dose

A new internal report revealed that new channels of Medicare fraud opened up during the COVID pandemic.  This was due in large part to meet newly emerging health care needs of older Americans which left the program vulnerable to falsified billings.  In just one example, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a study in September that said it had already detected potentially fraudulent billings related to telehealth from more than 1,700 health care providers.  This translated to a loss to the government of $128 million.  In California, a federal jury convicted Mark Schena, the president of a Silicon Valley medical technology company, of a conspiracy to bilk Medicare and private insurers out of $77 million.  They marketed a COVID test not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and paired it with other expensive tests.  Also in our state, health-testing laboratory owners Imran Shams and Lourdes Navarro face charges of defrauding Medicare out of $214 million.  They used COVID testing as a pretext to add on expensive and unnecessary respiratory pathogen tests while paying illegal bribes to medical marketers for directing doctor’s orders to their labs.

Free N95 Masks Coming Soon To A Drugstore Near You

The Biden administration is expected to begin distributing a whopping 400 million free N95 masks to Americans all over the country.  The masks are coming from the Strategic National Stockpile and will be distributed via local pharmacies and community health centers.  The number of masks being distributed comprise about half of our National Stockpile.

 

Pacific Grove, CA Financial Elder Abuse Abounds Amidst Pandemic

A caregiver posing with the old woman in wheelchair

AARP The Magazine recently ran an article about financial elder abuse, which, unfortunately, is often done by a family member.  Liz Loewy, former chief of the Elder Abuse Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and now chief operating officer of a financial-monitoring company EverSafe said these crimes are all too prevalent.  Sadly, many cases go unreported.  A study of New York residents found that only 1 in 44 elder abuse cases were reported to authorities.  “They may start out helping a parent, with good intentions, and then, after the parent exhibits signs of diminished capacity, start diverting funds,” Lowey said.  “It often starts small, then progresses into ‘I wrote a few checks to pay for Johnny’s college.  lways said she wanted to help with tuition.’  Or beyond that, home improvement or a new car,” she said.  If you believe that you are witnessing elder abuse, please call Adult Protective Services.  Unfortunately, with the wealth on the Monterey Peninsula residents of Carmel, PG and Pebble Beach are often targeted.

http://mcdss.co.monterey.ca.us/aging/

Monterey, CA Coronavirus Update From A Carmel Caregiver

There were just 53 new cases of coronavirus reported in Monterey County today, bringing the total to 42,628 cases, with one new death reported.  Moderna announced today that the first children have been vaccinated in their KidCOVE study, which is testing the effectiveness of the vaccine on children from 6 months of age to 11 years old.  Moderna is running a separate trial on children 12-17.  Currently, the drug company only allows the vaccine to be given to people 18 and older.  Nationally, the numbers are not looking that good.  There were 57,083 new cases, significantly higher than the 38,034 reported the day prior.  That brings the grand total to 29.486 million and deaths rose by 1.114 to 535,997. In California, there were 2,554 new cases for a total of 3.626 million, while deaths rose by 75 to 55,621.  The number of cases are still significant so please stay home and stay safe as much as possible.