Recently a Michigan physician was arrested for committing over $35 million in Medicare fraud. (Probably some Medicaid fraud too, but Medicaid payments have not been reviewed).  I have always said in this blog that I am against fraud.  When someone is committing Medicare or Medicaid fraud, I say, prosecute to the highest degree allowable by law!

Here is one of many articles: link.

Providers who commit fraud are making good providers undergo  harassing audits, harsh recoupments, and needless attorneys’ fees to fight the injustices. 

Dear DHHS, This (the below-referenced story) is what Medicare/caid fraud looks like. It is obvious. It is disgusting.  Fraud is NOT forgetting to date a service note.  Fraud is NOT inadvertently inserting the incorrect billing code.  Stop focusing on documentation nit-picking and find the REAL fraud! From, Me.

But, this Michigan physician…of all the possible fraudulent Medicare/Medicaid schemes….this man takes the cake.

Dr. Farid Fata, an oncologist, falsely diagnosed people WITHOUT cancer (healthy adults) as having cancer, subjecting these healthy adults to chemotherapy, and reaping the monetary benefit of expensive procedures.  In my mind, Dr. Farid Fata should spend the rest of his life behind bars.  And, if possible, throw a little radiation in his cell every now and then.

If greed is the inordinate desire to possess wealth far beyond the dictates of basic survival and comfort and to the detriment of anyone else, Dr. Farat exemplifies greed.

Remember the moral: “It is not wise to be too greedy.” –Aesop.

This moral comes from “A Dog and its Shadow,” in which a dog crosses over a river with a bone in his mouth.  He sees his own shadow in the water, but shadow’s bone is twice the size of the bone in his mouth.  (Obviously, an optical illusion).  In an effort to snatch the bigger bone, the dog lets go of his own bone, and attacks the other dog (shadow), to get the bigger bone.  The dog loses both bones – the shadow-bone, because it is a shadow; and his own, because the stream sweeps it away.

Dr. Fata wanted his own bone, as well as any other bone he could possibly swipe.

In the meantime, Dr. Fata, in complete opposition of his Hippocratic Oath, injured hundreds of patients by subjecting them to unnecessary treatments. 

In the end, Dr. Fata loses all bones. 

What treatments did Dr. Farat perform?

• Chemotherapy treatments to healthy adults;
• Positron Emission Tomograph (PET) scans and a variety of cancer and hematology treatments for patients who did not need them;
• The administration of unnecessary chemotherapy to patients in remission;
• Deliberate misdiagnosis of patients as having cancer to justify unnecessary cancer treatment;
• Administration of chemotherapy to end-of-life patients who will not benefit from the treatment;
• Deliberate misdiagnosis of patients without cancer to justify expensive testing;
• Fabrication of other diagnoses such as anemia and fatigue to justify unnecessary hematology treatments; and
• Distribution of controlled substances to patients without medical necessity or are administered at dangerous levels.

Prosecutors say Fata was motivated by money, billing Medicare for false claims, all the while, living here:

That is quite a bone!!!!

Dr. Fata faced a federal magistrate.  He was arraigned Monday on a federal health care fraud indictment.  Dr. Fata is being held at Wayne County Jail on a $9 million bond.

Dr. Fata became a naturalized American citizen in 2009.  He was a prominent oncologist.  Dr. Fata could very well had done well in his life with his wife with his own bones that collected.  Apparently, an oncologist-sized bone was not good enough for Dr. Fata.  Oh no, he wanted his oncologist-sized bone SUPER-SIZED.

And super-sized he will get!  He faces:

• 20 years in jail;
• Deportation (if any crimes occurred prior to 2009);
• Possible bankruptcy;
• Possible fines
• Loss of his medical license;
• Potential loss of family (If my husband intentionally committed these acts, I doubt I could ever stay with him…of course, my husband never would!!!)
• Inevitable civil suits (If Dr. Fata diagnosed my with cancer and I discovered he purposely diagnosed me with a terminal disease to benefit monetarily….a very, large civil lawsuit would be filed immediately.  In fact, I am sure plaintiffs’ lawyers all over are salivating).

Yet, personally, I do not think the 20 years, even including all the incidental consequences, is enough punishment.  Think of the people who believed they suffered from cancer, underwent chemo, became ill (when they would otherwise have been healthy)…

The Italian poet, Durante degli Alighieri, simply referred to as “Dante,” in “Purgatory,” reserved the fourth circle of Purgatory for the greedy.  Also, some of the greedy were bound and laid face down on the ground for having concentrated too much on earthly thoughts.

In my mind, 20 years is not nearly long enough for Dr. Fata. 

Maybe, as Dante wrote, Dr. Fata should be bound and laid face down for 20 years.  Or, perhaps, he should  be forced to undergo years of chemotherapy…one year for every healthy adult he forced to undergo unneccessary chemotherapy.