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We
would like to make the public aware about another corporation
defrauding Medicare. Surprise, surprise. They will have left many lives
affected by their greed. And I don't mean to sound like a sap, but
right before the holidays?? That's just wrong in so many ways. Not to
mention this IS respiratory season and how many of Medicare's
beneficiaries who are affected by this fiasco will call their PVP
(Personal Visiting Physician) and will reach one of the nurses who
stayed behind telling them they no longer have a doctor nor a nurse!
They will be directed to do what Medicare has forked out millions of
dollars to prevent! They'll be told, "Go to the ER or call 911" Let me
give a quick synopsis of what has fueled this blog and the need to gain
as much support in our quest for justice.
We were laid off
unexpectantly on Friday December 14, 2007 because our employer bilked
millions of dollars from Medicare since October 2005 and the employees
and Medicare beneficiaries paid the price for their wrong doing.
Medicare provided funding to our company for physicians to make house
calls for high cost beneficiaries. Care Level opened many offices
throughout California, Florida, Texas and Arizona. Medicare paid Care
Level to have a physician available to these beneficiaries 24/7.
Medicare pays Care Level a fee every month for every single beneficiary
to be managed by a care level physician. We had more than 6,000
beneficiaries just in California alone who had never been seen by a
physician and Care Level still took payment despite this. Medicare
performed an audit and found that these beneficiaries were never
touched by a physician (they were only managed telephonically by a
licensed nurse), therefore, care level will have to pay Medicare back
for taking false payments. Beneficiaries have been billed as well. Care
Level laid off more than 2/3 of their staff and have left thousands of
enrolled beneficiaries without care. The beneficiaries were not
notified that they will no longer be receiving services. This has and
will affect thousands of Medicare recipients in 4 states, various
vendors that will not be paid for services rendered and employees in 4
states. Care Level is pretty much shutting their doors on a commitment
they made. It may not be today, but eventually it will happen. Yes,
it's a demonstration project. Does that protect you from medical
negligence? The demo has not ended yet. Is it okay to just turn your
back on patients because they live in a "red zone" area. Some of these
zones still had full time physicians servicing these so called red zone
areas. So it's okay to pull the plug on them because they made the
decision to live in a rural area? Then why bring them into this demo to
begin with? There's no excuse. Care Level is negligent. Not only to
their patients but also to their committed employees who believed in a
mission and worked their butts off to fulfill that mission. So how do
they reward these dedicated employees? They lay em off without any
notice and doesn't even have the audacity to answer employees
legitimate questions and concerns. Was there a severance for these
dedicated employees who have mortgages, rent, tuition due this month??
Nope! Not even a little for some presents? Nope! Nada! That's what Care
Level thinks about their staff. Nice! What about the sole providers
who's family will no longer have health coverage? Oh yes, there's
COBRA. Well, who can afford COBRA on $1800 a month on unemployment and
still have enough to live? Not to mention the co-pay and deductibles
for COBRA! Geez! And how about those employees who won't even get the
max of $1800 a month from unemployment. And how about them violating
labor laws by not giving a lot of the employees their final paycheck? I
am one of those that did not receive it. They are supposed to have
check in hand when they terminate employment. Is there anything that
can be done through the media to blow the whistle on this? I hope so!
This is going to devastate so many people.
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Mary, |
I know anything I can say... means nothing. I wish I could help, unfortunatley there are some lousy people around...and they pretend to be the good guys! I can only imagine what you and your coworkers are going thru right now... all I can offer is my thoughts and prayers that things resolve quickly. I am uninsured awaiting workers comp. I couldn't afford COBRA for both me and my wife so I opted for just her, if you have children that isn't going to help...Sorry...Just Hang in there...and know there are some pretty cool people here if you give them the chance.
Andy10:28 PM EST