The following comes from a July 25 story posted on National Review Online.
The federal government is preparing to destroy SAC Capital, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund based in Stamford, Conn., a project of the reclusive billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen. Two of Mr. Cohen’s employees are accused of violating insider-trading rules, and prosecutors have indicted SAC Capital corporately for having failed to supervise them. For a hedge fund, a federal indictment is practically as bad as a conviction — investors will pull their money, and, short of a miracle, the enterprise will die. Perhaps SAC Capital has it coming — it is always difficult to say in cases such as this. SAC already has paid more than $600 million to settle a related civil case, though it has admitted to no wrongdoing.
There is a piece of not entirely dissimilar news out of Texas. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, which operates a chain of abortion mills, announced that it was closing several of its abattoirs — and paying $1.4 million to the state of Texas to settle claims that it fraudulently billed the state under Medicaid for procedures that the attorney general says were not covered, or were entirely fictitious. Like SAC Capital, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has admitted no wrongdoing. In fact, its executives were defiant: “The allegations in this complaint are baseless,” spokesman Rochelle Tafolla said, calling the settlement a “practical matter” to head off expensive future litigation.
The Texas attorney general’s office, under the leadership of newly announced gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott, sees things differently, saying that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast intentionally falsified medical records in order to bilk the state out of Medicaid payments: “The State’s investigation revealed that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast improperly billed the Texas Medicaid program for products and services that were never actually rendered, not medically necessary, and were not covered by the Medicaid program — and were therefore not eligible for reimbursement. For example, state investigators determined that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast falsified material information in patients’ medical records in order to support fraudulent reimbursement claims to the Medicaid program.”
Planned Parenthood affiliates have faced similar accusations in the past. In 2012 the Alliance Defense Fund compiled state and federal audits of Planned Parenthood affiliates, concluding that “38 federal audits of state family-planning programs by HHS-OIG found between $88 million and $99 million in overbilling. The federal audits detailed ‘unbundling’ billing schemes related to pre-abortion examinations, counseling visits, and other services performed in conjunction with an abortion, and improper billing for abortions themselves. In New York alone during one four-year audit period, it appears that hundreds of thousands of abortion-related claims were billed illegally to Medicaid.” The Health and Human Services report, available here, found New York abortion clinics illegally billing Medicaid for abortions — a single clinic billed taxpayers for nearly 4,000 abortions during the audit period.
New York, it is worth noting, is not an especially conservative state. Neither is California, but a 2004 state audit there similarly revealed millions of dollars in overbilling. A Washington State audit revealed overbillings, drugs being given out without prescriptions, billings for what appear to be fictitious doctor visits, etc. New Jersey had to repay millions of dollars to the federal government for Medicaid overpayments related to Planned Parenthood affiliates.
If two traders at a Wall Street firm profiting from insider knowledge constitute a case for charging the enterprise as a whole with a crime, what are we to make of a consistent pattern of overbilling and fraud across several states, involving millions upon millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money? Given the impenitent attitude of the Texas affiliates and the Planned Parenthood central command, perhaps it is time to inform Cecile Richards & Co. that orange is the new black.
To read the original story, click here.
Millions of Catholic have no qualms about contributing to health plans at work that cover abortions and contraception. We pay for and support the abortion industry in many ways.
Dave that may be so but a lot of times it is not in our power…….
Poor innocent babies….but remember that things are only paid for when women or men volunteer to walk into those places and surrender their children to such torture. The spiritual aspect of things are way more than one can imagine….
Families often need medical care for their children or for themselves so they can raise their children. If they all boycott the immoral insurance companies, then what? God said to make babies and raise them … but the insurance companies are saying not to make babies yet they provide the means to keep them well so they can be raised. Is there a more sinister hypocrisy than this? Ooops again, the bishops don’t care; if they did they’d do something about it other than party with the “ruling elite”.
Undocumented claims are functionally legal in the absence of criminal penalties with jail time. In most jurisdictions these activities are treated as accounting errors. Powerfully government agencies inimical life, the Holder DOJ s & Sibelius HHS s, treat PPFA activities as officially favored &react with outrage when they’re opposed by the good commoners outside the ruling elites.
Why, then, is the Church failing to persuade the “ruling elite” to respect the values given by God to mankind and administered by the Church? Oops, I forgot … the bishops don’t care, as the money that rolls through their hands from the govt to the people might slow up.
Planned Parenthood is a militantly evil organization devoted to MURDER under the rubric of “women’s choice” and all of it’s top leader/corporate officers s/be prosecuted diligently for running a murder-for-profit enterprise. And President Obummer s/be prosecuted under a bill of impeachment for his role in covering for these murderous thugs. For he’s done nothing (in this context) but spin on behalf of the evil rendition by the U.S. Supreme Court called “Roe V. Wade since he assumed the highest office in the land. Now, any Christian/Catholic worthy of the name s/be actively engaged in and advocating for both the complete destruction of P.P and the impeachment of “dear leader” Obummer. And none of us is worthy of the name “Christian/Catholic” until this is consummated through our actions. I believe we will be judged by our actions on behalf of both of these causes. Or we can all stew in our own self-pity and say “these things will never happen, it’s too late”. That’s absolute nonsense. It CAN be done and it better get done, or we’re all collectively guilty. The end. May God have mercy on this nation. VIVA CRISTO REY! MARKRITE