Bipolar Today

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Defendants have started to plead guilty in a series of major medicare fraud charges in Florida. American Therapeutic, Corp. allegedly paid kickbacks to people who provided them with patients, and then billed Medicare for services that were either unnecessary or simply never paid at all. According to this article, the overall fraud attempted to steal $200 million dollars from medicare. The case has now expanded from the original owners of American Therapeutic. Six people have now pleaded guilty to having referred patients with phony mental health diagnoses of bipolar and other mental health disorders, often for treatment that never occurred.

Commentary

This kind of major theft is terrible in itself, but it doesn’t hurt just society overall but mentally ill people in particular. On the one hand, governments have allocated certain (shrinking) portions of their budgets for people with mental illnesses, and every dollar stolen from that reduces the amount of money available for people in need. On the other hand, any Medicare fraud at all can harm to overall credibility of the system. While it’s an invalid argument to say, “There is Medicare fraud, so we should cut Medicare,” it is an argument often made, and every theft provides more ammunition to people who think this way. This theft isn’t just theft, but theft from those who need it while at the same time defaming the victims.

Related posts:

1. Bipolar Disorder and Pleas: U.S. v. Miranda
2. Indiana Supreme Court: Societal Protection Not Grounds For Guilty Verdict
3. State Mental Health Funding Cut By $1.1B Since 2009
4. Bipolar Americans Falling Through Insurance Gaps
5. Antipsychotic Prescriptions Higher in Foster Care