 Congress is considering online sales tax legislation that is wrongheaded and unfair, and I am writing to ask for your help in telling Congress "No!" to new sales taxes and burdens for small businesses.Whether you're a consumer who loves the incredible selection and value that small businesses provide online, or a small-business seller who relies on the Internet for your livelihood, this legislation potentially affects you. For consumers, it means more money out of your pocket when you shop online from your favorite seller or small business shop owner. For small business sellers, it means you would be required to collect sales taxes nationwide from the more than 9,600 tax jurisdictions across the U.S. You also would face the prospect of being audited by out-of-state tax collectors. That's just wrong, and an unnecessary burden on you. Big national retailers are aggressively lobbying Congress to pass online sales tax legislation to "level the playing field" with Amazon. And, as they compete with big retail, Amazon is advocating for this legislation too, while at the same time they are seeking local tax exemptions across the country to build warehouses. This is a "big retail battle" in which small businesses and consumers have a lot to lose. But eBay is fighting, as we have for more than 15 years, to protect small online businesses and sellers and ensure healthy competition, value, and selection that benefit consumers online. The solution is simple: if Congress passes online sales tax legislation, we believe small businesses with less than 50 employees or less than $10 million in annual out-of-state sales should be exempt from the burden of collecting sales taxes nationwide. To put that in perspective, Amazon does more than $10 million in sales every 90 minutes. So we believe this is a reasonable exemption to protect small online businesses. That's what we're fighting for, and what big companies such as Amazon are fighting against. I hope you agree that imposing unnecessary tax burdens on small online businesses is a bad idea. Join us in letting your Members of Congress know they should protect small online businesses, not potentially put them out of business. Click here to make your voice heard. Together, I believe our voices can make a difference. Sincerely,  John Donahoe President and CEO eBay Inc. | |
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Ebay warns customer's and user's of new tax
FBI arrest 4 doctors from Sacred Heart Hospital
CHICAGO—The owner and another senior executive of Sacred Heart Hospital and
four physicians affiliated with the west side facility were arrested today for
allegedly conspiring to pay and receive illegal kickbacks, including more than
$225,000 in cash, along with other forms of payment, in exchange for the
referral of patients insured by Medicare and Medicaid to the hospital, announced
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Gary S. Shapiro.Agents from the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General today also began executing search and seizure warrants in connection with an ongoing investigation of alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud schemes at the hospital involving emergency room evaluation, testing, and observation services that were not medically necessary, as well as medically unnecessary sedation, intubation, and tracheotomy procedures performed on patients. Approximately $2 million in Medicare reimbursement payments was seized today from various bank accounts.
Arrested were Edward J. Novak, 58, of Park Ridge, Sacred Heart’s owner and chief executive officer since the late 1990s; Roy M. Payawal, 64, of Burr Ridge, executive vice president and chief financial officer since the early 2000s; and Drs. Venkateswara R. “V.R.” Kuchipudi, 66, of Oak Brook, Percy Conrad May, Jr., 75, of Chicago, Subir Maitra, 73, of Chicago, and Shanin Moshiri, 57, of Chicago.
Sacred Heart Hospital is a 119-bed acute care facility located at 3240 West Franklin Blvd. in Chicago. Approximately 40 in-patients were in the hospital this morning, and representatives of the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) were on site and coordinating with the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services to ensure continuity of patient care.
“These charges and the affidavit’s other allegations outline a kickback conspiracy to bribe doctors to refer patients to Sacred Heart where they would be treated in in an environment in which the quality of care and appropriate medical analysis were less important than maximizing the numbers of patients funneled into the hospital,” said Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
“The payment of kickbacks or bribes in exchange for the referral of Medicare or Medicaid patients, regardless of the form in which they are paid, is a crime,” said Lamont Pugh, III, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Region of HHS-OIG. “The Office of Inspector General will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to aggressively investigate alleged illegal patient referral schemes and hold accountable those who seek to exploit vulnerable patients and the Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
“Today’s arrests demonstrate our commitment to enforcing the laws intended to prevent abuses of the Medicare and Medicaid programs and to preserve the ability of those programs to provide appropriate medical services to the elderly and the needy,” said Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of investigation.
The defendants were charged in a complaint that was filed yesterday and unsealed today after the arrests. All six defendants were scheduled to appear beginning at 3 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Martin in Federal Court.
Kickback Conspiracy
A 90-page affidavit in support of the criminal complaint and search and seizure warrants states that former Sacred Heart Physician A began cooperating in the investigation in October 2011, and Administrator A and Administrator B began assisting in January 2013 and February 2012, respectively. Each of them made consensual recordings of meetings and telephone conversations with other executives, administrators, physicians, and employees that are described in the affidavit.
According to the complaint—at Novak’s direction and with his approval and Payawal’s assistance—Sacred Heart implemented a scheme to pay kickbacks to physicians in return or referrals of Medicare and Medicaid patients. Novak and Payawal allegedly tried to conceal the scheme by masking payments as fictitious rental payments; paying the salaries of physicians’ employees; providing physicians ghost contracts for duties without any real responsibilities; creating alternative billing arrangements; and purporting to pay physicians to supervise and teach non-existent medical students.
In a conversation that Administrator A recorded on February 28, 2013, Novak and Payawal allegedly identified Drs. Moshiri, Maitra and May as physicians receiving regular kickback payments who Administrator A should pay.
Between January 2010 and February 2013, May allegedly received $74,000 in the form of 37 checks, for $2,000 each, disguised as “rental payments”; Moshiri, a podiatrist, allegedly received $86,000 in 38 checks pursuant to a purported contract to teach podiatry students; and Maitra allegedly received $68,000 in 34 checks pursuant to a purported teaching contract—and the $228,000 total in alleged kickbacks were all in exchange for their referral of patients to Sacred Heart, the charges allege.
In a recorded conversation last month, Maitra allegedly explained to Administrator A that he used to make Novak “so much money” performing almost daily penile implant procedures on patients, but that he no longer performed as many of those procedures because Medicare had decreased its rates of reimbursement for the procedure. Maitra did not comment on whether the patient need for the procedure had somehow changed, according to the affidavit.
Regarding Dr. Kuchipudi, Administrator A told agents that he was one of Sacred Heart’s most prolific patient referral sources and, according to Physician A, was known within the hospital as the “king of nursing homes.” According to Administrator A, Sacred Heart paid Kuchipudi for Medicare patient referrals in two ways: first, by paying most of the salaries of a physician’s assistant and a registered nurse who were effectively employed by Kuchipudi, and second, by paying Physician B for treating Kuchipudi’s patients at Sacred Heart, despite the fact that Kuchipudi, and not the hospital, billed insurers for the services Physician B provided to those patients. These arrangements allegedly benefited Kuchipudi as a result of the hospital absorbing employee salary costs that Kuchipudi would normally have to pay himself.
Tracheotomy Procedures
The investigation is also probing claims that Sacred Heart Physician D, a pulmonologist, allegedly performs a high number of unnecessary intubations and prolongs them by directing heavy sedation of his patients, often resulting in tracheotomies being performed by Sacred Heart surgeons that may not have been medically necessary. Administrator A told agents that during a lunch with Novak and Payawal in December 2012, they both explained that tracheotomy cases provide substantial insurance reimbursement income for the hospital. On March 1, 2013, Administrator A recorded Novak stating that tracheotomies are Sacred Heart’s “biggest money maker” and the hospital can make $160,000 for a tracheotomy if the patient stays 27 days. On March 7, 2013, the Intensive Care Unit case manager told Administrator A that she must often “stretch” a tracheotomy patient’s stay to 28 days to maximize Medicare reimbursements “to make Novak happy.”
Novak’s Business Interests
According to the affidavit, Novak has direct or indirect ownership interest in various related entities, including Superior Home Health LLC, a home health care company; the Golden L.I.G.H.T. clinics, which are family practice/internal medicine clinics operated as divisions as Sacred Heart; the Chen Medical center; the Garfield Kidney Center LLC, an outpatient dialysis center; and the Bentley Insurance Group, a medical malpractice insurance company. Novak also owns various real estate and corporate management holding companies, and prior to June 2012, he operated the Chicago R.E.A.C.H Foundation, a purported non-profit, senior citizen program financed by the state of Illinois.
In a series of recorded conversations over the last two months, Payawal told Administrator A that a substantial part of Sacred Heart’s revenue comes from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and explained various ways in which revenue generated from the hospital is transferred to and among Novak’s other corporate interests.
Conspiracy to violate the federal anti-kickback statute carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine and restitution is mandatory. If convicted, the court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joel Hammerman, Terra Reynolds, and Ryan Hedges.
The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case falls under the umbrella of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which expanded operations to Chicago in February 2011, and is part of the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), a joint initiative announced in May 2009 between the Justice Department and HHS to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country. More than five dozen defendants have been charged in health care fraud cases since the strike force began operating in Chicago.
FBI arrest 4 doctors from Sacred Heart Hospital
CHICAGO—The owner and another senior executive of Sacred Heart Hospital and
four physicians affiliated with the west side facility were arrested today for
allegedly conspiring to pay and receive illegal kickbacks, including more than
$225,000 in cash, along with other forms of payment, in exchange for the
referral of patients insured by Medicare and Medicaid to the hospital, announced
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Gary S. Shapiro.Agents from the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General today also began executing search and seizure warrants in connection with an ongoing investigation of alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud schemes at the hospital involving emergency room evaluation, testing, and observation services that were not medically necessary, as well as medically unnecessary sedation, intubation, and tracheotomy procedures performed on patients. Approximately $2 million in Medicare reimbursement payments was seized today from various bank accounts.
Arrested were Edward J. Novak, 58, of Park Ridge, Sacred Heart’s owner and chief executive officer since the late 1990s; Roy M. Payawal, 64, of Burr Ridge, executive vice president and chief financial officer since the early 2000s; and Drs. Venkateswara R. “V.R.” Kuchipudi, 66, of Oak Brook, Percy Conrad May, Jr., 75, of Chicago, Subir Maitra, 73, of Chicago, and Shanin Moshiri, 57, of Chicago.
Sacred Heart Hospital is a 119-bed acute care facility located at 3240 West Franklin Blvd. in Chicago. Approximately 40 in-patients were in the hospital this morning, and representatives of the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) were on site and coordinating with the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services to ensure continuity of patient care.
“These charges and the affidavit’s other allegations outline a kickback conspiracy to bribe doctors to refer patients to Sacred Heart where they would be treated in in an environment in which the quality of care and appropriate medical analysis were less important than maximizing the numbers of patients funneled into the hospital,” said Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
“The payment of kickbacks or bribes in exchange for the referral of Medicare or Medicaid patients, regardless of the form in which they are paid, is a crime,” said Lamont Pugh, III, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Region of HHS-OIG. “The Office of Inspector General will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to aggressively investigate alleged illegal patient referral schemes and hold accountable those who seek to exploit vulnerable patients and the Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
“Today’s arrests demonstrate our commitment to enforcing the laws intended to prevent abuses of the Medicare and Medicaid programs and to preserve the ability of those programs to provide appropriate medical services to the elderly and the needy,” said Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of investigation.
The defendants were charged in a complaint that was filed yesterday and unsealed today after the arrests. All six defendants were scheduled to appear beginning at 3 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Martin in Federal Court.
Kickback Conspiracy
A 90-page affidavit in support of the criminal complaint and search and seizure warrants states that former Sacred Heart Physician A began cooperating in the investigation in October 2011, and Administrator A and Administrator B began assisting in January 2013 and February 2012, respectively. Each of them made consensual recordings of meetings and telephone conversations with other executives, administrators, physicians, and employees that are described in the affidavit.
According to the complaint—at Novak’s direction and with his approval and Payawal’s assistance—Sacred Heart implemented a scheme to pay kickbacks to physicians in return or referrals of Medicare and Medicaid patients. Novak and Payawal allegedly tried to conceal the scheme by masking payments as fictitious rental payments; paying the salaries of physicians’ employees; providing physicians ghost contracts for duties without any real responsibilities; creating alternative billing arrangements; and purporting to pay physicians to supervise and teach non-existent medical students.
In a conversation that Administrator A recorded on February 28, 2013, Novak and Payawal allegedly identified Drs. Moshiri, Maitra and May as physicians receiving regular kickback payments who Administrator A should pay.
Between January 2010 and February 2013, May allegedly received $74,000 in the form of 37 checks, for $2,000 each, disguised as “rental payments”; Moshiri, a podiatrist, allegedly received $86,000 in 38 checks pursuant to a purported contract to teach podiatry students; and Maitra allegedly received $68,000 in 34 checks pursuant to a purported teaching contract—and the $228,000 total in alleged kickbacks were all in exchange for their referral of patients to Sacred Heart, the charges allege.
In a recorded conversation last month, Maitra allegedly explained to Administrator A that he used to make Novak “so much money” performing almost daily penile implant procedures on patients, but that he no longer performed as many of those procedures because Medicare had decreased its rates of reimbursement for the procedure. Maitra did not comment on whether the patient need for the procedure had somehow changed, according to the affidavit.
Regarding Dr. Kuchipudi, Administrator A told agents that he was one of Sacred Heart’s most prolific patient referral sources and, according to Physician A, was known within the hospital as the “king of nursing homes.” According to Administrator A, Sacred Heart paid Kuchipudi for Medicare patient referrals in two ways: first, by paying most of the salaries of a physician’s assistant and a registered nurse who were effectively employed by Kuchipudi, and second, by paying Physician B for treating Kuchipudi’s patients at Sacred Heart, despite the fact that Kuchipudi, and not the hospital, billed insurers for the services Physician B provided to those patients. These arrangements allegedly benefited Kuchipudi as a result of the hospital absorbing employee salary costs that Kuchipudi would normally have to pay himself.
Tracheotomy Procedures
The investigation is also probing claims that Sacred Heart Physician D, a pulmonologist, allegedly performs a high number of unnecessary intubations and prolongs them by directing heavy sedation of his patients, often resulting in tracheotomies being performed by Sacred Heart surgeons that may not have been medically necessary. Administrator A told agents that during a lunch with Novak and Payawal in December 2012, they both explained that tracheotomy cases provide substantial insurance reimbursement income for the hospital. On March 1, 2013, Administrator A recorded Novak stating that tracheotomies are Sacred Heart’s “biggest money maker” and the hospital can make $160,000 for a tracheotomy if the patient stays 27 days. On March 7, 2013, the Intensive Care Unit case manager told Administrator A that she must often “stretch” a tracheotomy patient’s stay to 28 days to maximize Medicare reimbursements “to make Novak happy.”
Novak’s Business Interests
According to the affidavit, Novak has direct or indirect ownership interest in various related entities, including Superior Home Health LLC, a home health care company; the Golden L.I.G.H.T. clinics, which are family practice/internal medicine clinics operated as divisions as Sacred Heart; the Chen Medical center; the Garfield Kidney Center LLC, an outpatient dialysis center; and the Bentley Insurance Group, a medical malpractice insurance company. Novak also owns various real estate and corporate management holding companies, and prior to June 2012, he operated the Chicago R.E.A.C.H Foundation, a purported non-profit, senior citizen program financed by the state of Illinois.
In a series of recorded conversations over the last two months, Payawal told Administrator A that a substantial part of Sacred Heart’s revenue comes from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and explained various ways in which revenue generated from the hospital is transferred to and among Novak’s other corporate interests.
Conspiracy to violate the federal anti-kickback statute carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine and restitution is mandatory. If convicted, the court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joel Hammerman, Terra Reynolds, and Ryan Hedges.
The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case falls under the umbrella of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which expanded operations to Chicago in February 2011, and is part of the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), a joint initiative announced in May 2009 between the Justice Department and HHS to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country. More than five dozen defendants have been charged in health care fraud cases since the strike force began operating in Chicago.
NRA News: Illinois
Recently, some Republican and Democratic Senators have begun to discuss and consider exempting Chicago and Cook County from the “shall-issue” portion of the concealed carry law that a federal court has ordered be adopted by June 9. Such an exemption would allow Chicago and Cook County authorities to deny a concealed carry permit to an applicant even if that person meets all of the statutory requirements. The rest of the state, however, would be required under law to grant concealed carry permits to anyone who meets the requirements.Any exemption for Chicago and Cook County could easily deny 40% of the population “shall-issue” right to carry. Although no bill language has been introduced yet, it is important that you call your state Senator immediately. Urge him or her to oppose any legislation or amendment that would split the residents of Illinois, giving some more rights than others. Currently, the Illinois House is very close to passing a solid “shall-issue” right to carry bill to benefit and provide the ability to carry a firearm for self-defense to all law-abiding Illinois residents. The state Senate should not indicate that they are willing to abandon 40% of the population.
Our constitutional right to keep and bear arms and inherent right to self-defense protect all Americans, not just some in a particular state, city or county. And, in fact, given the violent crime rates in Chicago and Cook County, law-abiding residents of these municipalities arguably have a greater need than others in Illinois to carry a firearm for self-defense since they are far more likely to be victims of violent crime, and their local government officials refuse to deal effectively with violent criminals there.
Please contact your state Senator TODAY and urge him or her to support equal right to carry laws for ALL Illinoisans. Contact information for your state Senator can be found here.
Social Security Administration buys gun ammo
Federal, non-military agencies, noted radio host Mark Levin last week, have purchased enough ammunition recently to not only shoot every American five times, but also engage in a prolonged, domestic war.
The numbers are based on recent reports that put the total federal ammunition buy in the last 10 months at approaching two billion rounds.
“To provide some perspective,” Levin noted, “experts estimate that at the peak of the Iraq war American troops were firing around 5.5 million rounds per month. At that rate, the [Department of Homeland Security] is armed now for a 24-year Iraq war. A 24-year Iraq war!”
What do federal agencies need with all that ammunition?
The government’s only official explanation for the massive ammo buy is that law enforcement agents in the respective agencies need the bullets for “mandatory quarterly firearms qualifications and other training sessions.”
The staggering number and lack of details in the official explanation, however, has led to rampant speculation, including concerns the DHS is arming itself to fight off insurrection among Americans.
“I’m going to tell you what I think is going on,” Levin offered. “I don’t think domestic insurrection. Law enforcement and national security agencies, they play out multiple scenarios. … I’ll tell you what I think they’re simulating: the collapse of our financial system, the collapse of our society and the potential for widespread violence, looting, killing in the streets, because that’s what happens when an economy collapses.
“I suspect that just in case our fiscal situation, our monetary situation, collapses, and following it the civil society collapses, that is the rule of law, they want to be prepared,” Levin said. “I know why the government’s arming up: It’s not because there’s going to be an insurrection; it’s because our society is unraveling.”
Audio of Levin’s discussion on the ammunition buy can be heard below:
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/feds-buying-enough-bullets-for-24-year-war/#uBAWsg8RfuA8wWFj.99
Boston Bomber's may have been a set up by U.S. Government and paid amputy actors
This guy in this video found interesting theories but nothing to prove why we should believe him.
This video will show lock down while looking for the bomber. The guy shooting the video calls it Marshall Law. We call it police doing their job.
This website putts some good perspectives in to your head. But We are not convinced
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Boston_Bombing_Culprits_Found%3F_/25399/0/38/38/Y/M.html
Investigating
We have gotten reports of amputees that were paid to stage the attacks in Boston.
We are currently investigating this as we believe that the bombings were not staged. But to many people have started looking in to this. People are saying that because to much has shown Sandy Hook fake that this was the governments ploy to push for a weapons ban. We have reason to believe 100% that Sandy Hook never happened. Please stay tuned as we investigate this Boston Bombing.
We are currently investigating this as we believe that the bombings were not staged. But to many people have started looking in to this. People are saying that because to much has shown Sandy Hook fake that this was the governments ploy to push for a weapons ban. We have reason to believe 100% that Sandy Hook never happened. Please stay tuned as we investigate this Boston Bombing.
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