The Sarge is friend's with Dr. Garrow and we have been talking awhile and gave us a source that is very creditable. We have been conducting an investigation in to this matter.
Dr. Jim Garrow, a renowned author and humanitarian who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, sparked a firestorm of controversy when he wrote on Facebook that President Obama wants military leaders who will fire on U.S. citizens. In an exclusive interview with Examiner.com, Dr. Garrow said the man who told him this is a military hero who is known by everybody in the country. Dr. Garrow said that officers who know about this cannot come forward without endangering themselves and facing possible retaliation from the administration.
Obama administration's legal code for targeting and killing American citizens with drones. A memo claims that the President Obama can and will suspend the Fifth Amendment without submitting evidence to court, without congressional oversight, and without making it's legal reasoning available to the public. In typical government-speak, the Justice Department expands on already vague and broad domestic. Since the memo, Obama has already targeted and killed two American citizens with drone strikes with no embarrassingly minimal to no outrage among the American media.
1878 Posse Comitatus Act. The Posse Comitatus Act abolished the use of the U.S. military against our own citizens and eliminated the ability of the U.S. government to eliminate the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights by declaring Martial Law.
In early 2006 Congress passed bill H.R.5122 granting the President the right to commandeer Federal and State National Guard Troops for use against citizens. The bill is entitled the John Warner Defense Appropriation Act for Fiscal Year 2007
Section 1076 of H.R. 5122.ENR allows the President to: “...employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to... restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States..., where the President determines that,...domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order; suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy...”
1931 Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations, infects human subjects with cancer cells. He later goes on to establish the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama, and is named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. While there, he begins a series of radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients.
1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. 200 black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs in order to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease. They all subsequently die from syphilis, their families never told that they could have been treated.
1935 The Pellagra Incident. After millions of individuals die from Pellagra over a span of two decades, the U.S. Public Health Service finally acts to stem the disease. The director of the agency admits it had known for at least 20 years that Pellagra is caused by a niacin deficiency but failed to act since most of the deaths occured within poverty-striken black populations.
1940 Four hundred prisoners in Chicago are infected with Malaria in order to study the effects of new and experimental drugs to combat the disease. Nazi doctors later on trial at Nuremberg cite this American study to defend their own actions during the Holocaust.
1942 Chemical Warfare Services begins mustard gas experiments on approximately 4,000 servicemen. The experiments continue until 1945 and made use of Seventh Day Adventists who chose to become human guinea pigs rather than serve on active duty.
1943 In response to Japan's full-scale germ warfare program, the U.S. begins research on biological weapons at Fort Detrick, MD.
1944 U.S. Navy uses human subjects to test gas masks and clothing. Individuals were locked in a gas chamber and exposed to mustard gas and lewisite.
1945 Project Paperclip is initiated. The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence, and the CIA recruit Nazi scientists and offer them immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top secret government projects in the United States.
1945 "Program F" is implemented by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). This is the most extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoride, which was the key chemical component in atomic bomb production. One of the most toxic chemicals known to man, fluoride, it is found, causes marked adverse effects to the central nervous system but much of the information is squelched in the name of national security because of fear that lawsuits would undermine full-scale production of atomic bombs.
1946 Patients in VA hospitals are used as guinea pigs for medical experiments. In order to allay suspicions, the order is given to change the word "experiments" to "investigations" or "observations" whenever reporting a medical study performed in one of the nation's veteran's hospitals.
1947 Colonel E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Comission issues a secret document (Document 07075001, January 8, 1947) stating that the agency will begin administering intravenous doses of radioactive substances to human subjects.
1947 The CIA begins its study of LSD as a potential weapon for use by American intelligence. Human subjects (both civilian and military) are used with and without their knowledge.
1950 Department of Defense begins plans to detonate nuclear weapons in desert areas and monitor downwind residents for medical problems and mortality rates.
1950 In an experiment to determine how susceptible an American city would be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of bacteria from ships over San Franciso. Monitoring devices are situated throughout the city in order to test the extent of infection. Many residents become ill with pneumonia-like symptoms.
1951 Department of Defense begins open air tests using disease-producing bacteria and viruses. Tests last through 1969 and there is concern that people in the surrounding areas have been exposed.
1953 U.S. military releases clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide gas over Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Fort Wayne, the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia. Their intent is to determine how efficiently they could disperse chemical agents.
1953 Joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted in which tens of thousands of people in New York and San Francisco are exposed to the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and Bacillus glogigii.
1953 CIA initiates Project MK ULTRA. This is an eleven year research program designed to produce and test drugs and biological agents that would be used for mind control and behavior modification. Six of the subprojects involved testing the agents on unwitting human beings.
1955 The CIA, in an experiment to test its ability to infect human populations with biological agents, releases a bacteria withdrawn from the Army's biological warfare arsenal over Tampa Bay, Fl.
1955 Army Chemical Corps continues LSD research, studying its potential use as a chemical incapacitating agent. More than 1,000 Americans participate in the tests, which continue until 1958.
1956 U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, Ga and Avon Park, Fl. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims for effects.
1958 LSD is tested on 95 volunteers at the Army's Chemical Warfare Laboratories for its effect on intelligence.
1960 The Army Assistant Chief-of-Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) authorizes field testing of LSD in Europe and the Far East. Testing of the European population is code named Project THIRD CHANCE; testing of the Asian population is code named Project DERBY HAT.
1965 CIA and Department of Defense begin Project MK SEARCH, a program to develop a capability to manipulate human behavior through the use of mind-altering drugs.
1965 Prisoners at the Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia are subjected to dioxin, the highly toxic chemical component of Agent Orange used in Viet Nam. The men are later studied for development of cancer, which indicates that Agent Orange had been a suspected carcinogen all along.
1966 CIA initiates Project MK OFTEN, a program to test the toxicological effects of certain drugs on humans and animals.
1966 U.S. Army dispenses Bacillus subtilis variant niger throughout the New York City subway system. More than a million civilians are exposed when army scientists drop lightbulbs filled with the bacteria onto ventilation grates.
1967 CIA and Department of Defense implement Project MK NAOMI, successor to MK ULTRA and designed to maintain, stockpile and test biological and chemical weapons.
1968 CIA experiments with the possibility of poisoning drinking water by injecting chemicals into the water supply of the FDA in Washington, D.C.
1969 Dr. Robert MacMahan of the Department of Defense requests from congress $10 million to develop, within 5 to 10 years, a synthetic biological agent to which no natural immunity exists.
1970 Funding for the synthetic biological agent is obtained under H.R. 15090. The project, under the supervision of the CIA, is carried out by the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, the army's top secret biological weapons facility. Speculation is raised that molecular biology techniques are used to produce AIDS-like retroviruses.
1970 United States intensifies its development of "ethnic weapons" (Military Review, Nov., 1970), designed to selectively target and eliminate specific ethnic groups who are susceptible due to genetic differences and variations in DNA.
1975 The virus section of Fort Detrick's Center for Biological Warfare Research is renamed the Fredrick Cancer Research Facilities and placed under the supervision of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) . It is here that a special virus cancer program is initiated by the U.S. Navy, purportedly to develop cancer-causing viruses. It is also here that retrovirologists isolate a virus to which no immunity exists. It is later named HTLV (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus).
1977 Senate hearings on Health and Scientific Research confirm that 239 populated areas had been contaminated with biological agents between 1949 and 1969. Some of the areas included San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Key West, Panama City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.
1978 Experimental Hepatitis B vaccine trials, conducted by the CDC, begin in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ads for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous homosexual men.
1981 First cases of AIDS are confirmed in homosexual men in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, triggering speculation that AIDS may have been introduced via the Hepatitis B vaccine
1985 According to the journal Science (227:173-177), HTLV and VISNA, a fatal sheep virus, are very similar, indicating a close taxonomic and evolutionary relationship.
1986 According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (83:4007-4011), HIV and VISNA are highly similar and share all structural elements, except for a small segment which is nearly identical to HTLV. This leads to speculation that HTLV and VISNA may have been linked to produce a new retrovirus to which no natural immunity exists.
1986 A report to Congress reveals that the U.S. Government's current generation of biological agents includes: modified viruses, naturally occurring toxins, and agents that are altered through genetic engineering to change immunological character and prevent treatment by all existing vaccines.
1987 Department of Defense admits that, despite a treaty banning research and development of biological agents, it continues to operate research facilities at 127 facilities and universities around the nation.
1990 More than 1500 six-month old black and hispanic babies in Los Angeles are given an "experimental" measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States. CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected to their children was experimental.
1994 With a technique called "gene tracking," Dr. Garth Nicolson at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX discovers that many returning Desert Storm veterans are infected with an altered strain of Mycoplasma incognitus, a microbe commonly used in the production of biological weapons. Incorporated into its molecular structure is 40 percent of the HIV protein coat, indicating that it had been man-made.
1994 Senator John D. Rockefeller issues a report revealing that for at least 50 years the Department of Defense has used hundreds of thousands of military personnel in human experiments and for intentional exposure to dangerous substances. Materials included mustard and nerve gas, ionizing radiation, psychochemicals, hallucinogens, and drugs used during the Gulf War .
1995 U.S. Government admits that it had offered Japanese war criminals and scientists who had performed human medical experiments salaries and immunity from prosecution in exchange for data on biological warfare research.
1995 Dr. Garth Nicolson, uncovers evidence that the biological agents used during the Gulf War had been manufactured in Houston, TX and Boca Raton, Fl and tested on prisoners in the Texas Department of Corrections.
1996 Department of Defense admits that Desert Storm soldiers were exposed to chemical agents.
1997 Eighty-eight members of Congress sign a letter demanding an investigation into bioweapons use & Gulf War Syndrome.
MSNBC reported in January that Obama gave an executive order to be placed on Mount Rushmore stating " I feel that this will create at least one thousand jobs and increase tourism in South Dakota. I am the first black President. And I think history will show that I am one of the greatest Presidents to ever live. " President Obama
The Washington D.C.-based Outdoor Advertising Association of America told USA Today that the campaign was run without the knowledge of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial or the National Park Service.
"The campaign was a research project developed to measure consumer response asking people to vote for Barack Obama to have his face on Mount Rushmore. ," said association spokesman Stephen Freitas.
The carving of this stand alone head will be used as a mold for the coal piece that is on it's way.
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.
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.
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.
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.
