When is DOJ starting their investigation into Koch?
The story is really about Melgen and the length of the friendship with Senator Menendez.
Melgen is an ophthalmologist. He is not an optometrist. Ophthalmologists make plenty money from operations of cataracts in the elderly. Cataracts cause blindness if not attended to properly. If Dr. Melgen made a considerable income from Medicare I would be surprised at all.
In addition to Melgen being an optomologist, his practice is in Florida. Anyone have an idea of the percentage of elderly living in Florida compared to the rest of the country?
I hate corruption, but, my gut reaction is that this is not corruption so much as a place where ophthalmologists make a lot of money. I guess we'll see.I don't think Senator Menendez was providing the practice to the MD, was he?
March 6, 2015
By Tom Moran
...If true, Menendez (click here) is going to face enormous pressure to resign, ending a long career that started when he ran for school board at the age of 19 in Union City.
The charges center on his relationship with Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist who donated money to Menendez, and flew him on a private jet to a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic. At the time, investigators were checking into charges that Menendez returned the favor by intervening on Melgen's behalf over some questionable Medicare payments.
The trip to Domincan Republic also included charges that Menendez had sex with a teen prostitute, charges that were later discredited when the accuser released a video recanting the charges. Menendez said that showed that this was all the work of his political enemies....
The practice of providing perks to MDs by pharmaceutical companies has been status quo for decades.
...The pattern of large Medicare payments and six-figure political donations shows up among several of the doctors whose payment records were released for the first time this week by the Department of Health and Human Services. For years, the department refused to make the data public, and finally did so only after being sued by The Wall Street Journal....
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act eliminated that practice by pharmaceutical companies to bring down the cost of medications to reduce Medicare and Medicaid costs.
...Topping the list is Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, 59, an ophthalmologist from North Palm Beach, Fla., who received $21 million in Medicare reimbursements in 2012 alone. The doctor billed a bulk of his reimbursements for Lucentis, a medication used to treat macular degeneration made by a company that pays generous rebates to its doctors....
Macular degeneration (click here) is age related. It brings me back to the idea this is simply the population of people the MD has as clients. I don't find this strange yet.
I am surprised at the friendship between Dr. Melgen and Senator Menendez, they are both minorities and they are both successful. I know on face value this looks really bad, it is just when one thinks about it, the idea they are unlawful takes on a paler color.
April 9, 2015
By Frances Robles and Eric Lipton
...The state of Florida (click here) was home to many of the physicians who received the largest payments, 28 out of the top 100. California, with a much larger population, was second, with 10 of the top 100....
Wasn't Rick Scott also indicted on Medicare fraud when he was CEO?
Persons in Florida age 65 years and over is 18.7% as of 2014 according to the USA Census Bureau. That 18.7 percent comes out to be more than 3.7 million people over 65 years old. Add to that the retirement age is 62 for SSI and the numbers change even more. The same demographic in the USA is 14.1 percent.
The story is really about Melgen and the length of the friendship with Senator Menendez.
Melgen is an ophthalmologist. He is not an optometrist. Ophthalmologists make plenty money from operations of cataracts in the elderly. Cataracts cause blindness if not attended to properly. If Dr. Melgen made a considerable income from Medicare I would be surprised at all.
In addition to Melgen being an optomologist, his practice is in Florida. Anyone have an idea of the percentage of elderly living in Florida compared to the rest of the country?
I hate corruption, but, my gut reaction is that this is not corruption so much as a place where ophthalmologists make a lot of money. I guess we'll see.I don't think Senator Menendez was providing the practice to the MD, was he?
March 6, 2015
By Tom Moran
...If true, Menendez (click here) is going to face enormous pressure to resign, ending a long career that started when he ran for school board at the age of 19 in Union City.
The charges center on his relationship with Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist who donated money to Menendez, and flew him on a private jet to a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic. At the time, investigators were checking into charges that Menendez returned the favor by intervening on Melgen's behalf over some questionable Medicare payments.
The trip to Domincan Republic also included charges that Menendez had sex with a teen prostitute, charges that were later discredited when the accuser released a video recanting the charges. Menendez said that showed that this was all the work of his political enemies....
The practice of providing perks to MDs by pharmaceutical companies has been status quo for decades.
...The pattern of large Medicare payments and six-figure political donations shows up among several of the doctors whose payment records were released for the first time this week by the Department of Health and Human Services. For years, the department refused to make the data public, and finally did so only after being sued by The Wall Street Journal....
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act eliminated that practice by pharmaceutical companies to bring down the cost of medications to reduce Medicare and Medicaid costs.
...Topping the list is Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, 59, an ophthalmologist from North Palm Beach, Fla., who received $21 million in Medicare reimbursements in 2012 alone. The doctor billed a bulk of his reimbursements for Lucentis, a medication used to treat macular degeneration made by a company that pays generous rebates to its doctors....
Macular degeneration (click here) is age related. It brings me back to the idea this is simply the population of people the MD has as clients. I don't find this strange yet.
I am surprised at the friendship between Dr. Melgen and Senator Menendez, they are both minorities and they are both successful. I know on face value this looks really bad, it is just when one thinks about it, the idea they are unlawful takes on a paler color.
April 9, 2015
By Frances Robles and Eric Lipton
...The state of Florida (click here) was home to many of the physicians who received the largest payments, 28 out of the top 100. California, with a much larger population, was second, with 10 of the top 100....
Wasn't Rick Scott also indicted on Medicare fraud when he was CEO?
Persons in Florida age 65 years and over is 18.7% as of 2014 according to the USA Census Bureau. That 18.7 percent comes out to be more than 3.7 million people over 65 years old. Add to that the retirement age is 62 for SSI and the numbers change even more. The same demographic in the USA is 14.1 percent.
