Why Conrad Murray, a Convicted Felon, Remains on the Medicare Payroll

everlastinglove_MJ · December 2011

[size=12pt]Why Conrad Murray, a Convicted Felon, Remains on the Medicare Payroll[/size] Yesterday in Los Angeles, Dr. Conrad Murray was sentenced to four years in prison for helping to kill Michael Jackson by prescribing him propofol, an industrial-strength anesthetic, for Jackson’s insomnia. California Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor called Murray a “disgrace to the medical profession” who had committed a “horrific violation of trust.” Dr. Murray was convicted on November 7, and the State of California suspended his medical license back in January. But not to worry: Murray can continue to get paid by Medicare. This factoid is one of many contained in a letter that Senators Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) and Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) sent yesterday to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. In September, Hatch and Coburn sent Medicare chief Donald Berwick a list of 34 doctors and non-physician practitioners who have either been convicted of a felony, or pled guilty to a felony “generally considered detrimental to the Medicare program,” but retained their ability to bill Medicare for patient services, and/or to write orders and referrals. “In response to our findings,” write Hatch and Coburn, “CMS confirmed that 37 individuals who were participating in the Medicare program were convicted of a felony. However, CMS did not confirm that they would revoke any single physician or non-physician practitioner identified for such crime.” Berwick languidly responded that Medicare is “implementing an automated screening contract to help address the challenge of continuously monitoring provider licensure status,” but conceded that, in the meantime, “there are significant challenges with obtaining licensure information in real-time for all Medicare providers and suppliers.” But Conrad Murray lost his license in January. Today is the last day of November. Only in Washington does ten-plus months get called “real-time.” Hatch and Coburn pointed out that CMS doesn’t appear to have built the basic infrastructure needed to root out felons. “CMS confirmed our understanding,” they write, “that it does not have basic data sharing agreements or performance metrics to share felony indictment or conviction data with the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, Office of the Inspector General within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS OIG), or State Officials.” In other words, Medicare doesn’t know whether or not the people they send taxpayers’ checks to are criminals. Maybe this is also a matter what needs to be brought to daylight and should be exposed. Now it is linked to Conrad Murray it sure gets attention, which might be the intention. Also interesting is the word "factoid" in this article:

fac•toid (fktoid) n. 1. A piece of unverified or inaccurate information that is presented in the press as factual, often as part of a publicity effort, and that is then accepted as true because of frequent repetition: "What one misses finally is what might have emerged beyond both facts and factoidsa profound definition of the Marilyn Monroe phenomenon" (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt). 2. Usage Problem A brief, somewhat interesting fact.

I.o.w. you may consider whether this information is true or false. P.S. the comment on this article (by murphyslaw) is worth reading, imho. L.O.V.E.