Epic $150 million insurance fraud case (with gruesome patient outcomes)

[MumblesBadly]

http://www.latimes.com/local/califor...928-story.html

Don't read this if you have a queasy stomach. (And the stories about what the patients endure are also gruesome.)

'You idiots! What did you do?': Grand jury testimony in insurance fraud case is released

Jennifer Milone woke up from shoulder surgery in excruciating pain. Her temperature spiked. Her wound swelled.

After six weeks, she worried she had gangrene and returned to the clinic where she'd had the operation.

A physician assistant told her it looked as if there was still a stitch in her skin.

"Just hang on," he said. "I'm going to pull."

She watched as he extracted 24 inches of oozing gauze from her shoulder.

"You idiots!" she screamed. "What did you do?"

Milone gave the account during testimony before a grand jury this year as the Los Angeles County district attorney's office investigated what prosecutors now call one of the largest insurance fraud schemes in California history. Transcripts of the grand jury testimony were made public Friday.

...

Milone was one of 21 patients who prosecutors say suffered lasting scars or other injuries as a result of surgeries at Uwaydah's clinics.

Prosecutors also allege that a physician assistant who never went to medical school often operated on patients who thought Uwaydah was doing their surgeries.

A former employee of Uwaydah's testified that the physician assistant, Peter Nelson, did about 100 knee and shoulder surgeries on his own. While Nelson operated, the former employee said, Uwaydah, 49, sat in his office or paced in the hallway talking on the phone.

...

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dayan Mathai told grand jurors that the alleged scheme was a "case of profit over care" and "organized crime."

"It became almost an empire," he said.

The suspected conspirators paid kickbacks to attorneys and middlemen in exchange for illegal patient referrals, prosecutors said. A woman who worked at a marketing firm got $10,000 a month to provide Uwaydah with a certain number of patients, according to prosecutors.

More than $150 million was fraudulently billed to insurance companies, the district attorney's office alleged, saying those involved hid the money in shell bank accounts. Millions of dollars were transferred to Lebanon and Estonia, according to a bail motion filed by prosecutors Thursday.

There's more to the story in the article.

[DRK Star]

Was looking forward to reading the gross stories, and puking, as part of my new exercise regime.

[MumblesBadly]

Was looking forward to reading the gross stories, and puking, as part of my new exercise regime.

Try reading again the part where the doctor pulls 25 inches of bloody gauze from her shoulder (which shouldn't have been there) while eating fettuccine marinara with mushrooms and basil.