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Husband's investments
entangle Feinstein
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LATEST FLAP OVER MEDICARE
PAYMENT DENIALS
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By David WhitneyMcClatchy
NewspapersSan Jose Mercury News
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Article Launched:05/19/2007
01:36:54 AM PDT
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WASHINGTON - California lawmakers are questioning whether an auditing
company in which San Francisco investor Richard Blum, the husband of Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, has a major financial stake is rejecting Medicare claims at
California rehabilitation hospitals in order to reap millions of dollars in
profits at the expense of patient care.
The company, PRG-Schultz
International, has a contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, the overseer of the Medicare program, to check payments in
California for mistakes. Its only pay is a bounty of up to 30 percent on the
"overcharges" it identifies.
The California Hospital
Association first raised concerns in November that PRG-Schultz was targeting
rehabilitation hospitals that cared for Medicare patients after knee or hip
replacement surgery. The hospital association said PRG-Schultz has reviewed
thousands of cases dating as far back as 2002 and has rejected nearly all as
medically unnecessary. Melinda
Staveley, president of the 38-bed Rehabilitation Institute at Santa Barbara,
said more than 100 such cases from her non-profit institution had been
rejected. The facility could face having to repay more than $2 million.
Elderly patients
As difficult as that would
be financially for a small hospital with a $12 million annual budget, she
said the bigger concern is future patient care. The frail and elderly surgery
patients with compound medical problems no longer will have access to rehabilitation
hospitals and will have to rely on home or outpatient services.
"This is
devastating," Staveley said of the audits.
Her husband's business
interests in PRG-Schultz have proved awkward for Feinstein, the state's
Democratic senior senator, as the hospital association turns to Congress for
relief.
This is not the first time
Blum's business interests have collided with his wife's job. Blum Capital
Partners is a major investor in Northwest Airlines, which in 1995 won the
first contract by an American air carrier to fly to Beijing. Feinstein had
been friends with a former Chinese political leader since she was mayor of
San Francisco.
More recently, concerns have
been raised in Republican circles about some of Blum's investments benefiting
from defense contracts at a time when the senator was serving on the Senate
military construction appropriations committee.
Feinstein's press aide,
Scott Gerber, said the senator played no role in the legislation creating the
auditing program and did not intervene with program administrators to help
PRG-Schultz get the three-year contract in 2005.
Serious concerns
“FEINSTEIN SENT A LETTER
EXPRESSING HER CONCERNS....”
THIS IS TYPICAL WHORE FEINSTEIN.
SHE LIES THROUGH BOTH SIDES OF HER MOUTH AND STILL COUNTS HER DIRTY MONEY.
THE OLD WHORE HAS BEEN SENDING
OUT THE SAME OLD FORM LETTER FOR A DECADES EXPRESSING HER “CONCERN” OVER THE
INVASION BY MEXICO. ALL THE WHILE SHE’S IN THE BACK ROOM WORKING OUT NEW BIT
BY BIT AMNESTY WITH HER LA RAZA WHORES, PELOSI. BOXER, WAXMAN, ESHOO,
LOFGREN, HARMAN, FARR, SANCHEZ, ET AL.
THE OLD WHORE HAS PUBLICALLY MADE
COMMENTS ABOUT EVIL WAR PROFITEERS AND THEN WENT TO TOWN SERVICING BUSH WITH
HER !NO! IMPEACHMENT, FOR WAR PROFITS. ENOUGH TO BUY HERSELF ANOTHER MANSION,
THE 17 MILLION SAN FRANCISCO PLACE.IT’S TIME FEINSTEIN WENT TO PRISON!
On Thursday, after questions
from McClatchy Newspapers, Feinstein sent a letter to the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services that called the hospital association's
concerns "potentially serious." She asked program administrators to
investigate, saying the concerns are spreading beyond its determinations on
rehabilitation hospitals to other aspects of Medicare-financed
hospitalizations for the elderly, including short-stay hospital admissions.
Feinstein made no mention of
her husband's interest in PRG-Schultz, which she lists in her annual
financial disclosure reports. According to PRG-Schultz, Blum's investment
companies own 10.5 percent of its outstanding common stock, 53 percent of its
outstanding preferred stock and 28 percent of its notes and securities.
California House members
soon will follow with a joint letter of their own asking for an
investigation.
Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa
Barbara, is taking the lead among Democrats. Her press aide, Emily Kryder,
said 15 members - more than a quarter of the state's congressional delegation
- have agreed to sign the letter so far.
"The review and
collection practices of PRG-Schultz threaten access to rehabilitation
services in California," the letter said. "We urge you to examine
the actions taken by PRG-Schultz International, Inc."
The auditing program was set
up as a demonstration project initially focusing on the three highest-cost
Medicare states - California, New York and Florida. Separate contractors are
used for each state. PRG-Schultz is the only for-profit contractor among them,
and Medicare administrators believe it has been the most controversial
because it alone has been zeroing in on rehabilitation hospitals.
Highly lucrative
On the brink of financial
collapse when it won the contract two years ago, PRG-Schultz has found the
job to be enormously lucrative. Government figures indicate that it had
rejected $105 million in California Medicare overcharges as of Sept. 30, the
end of the 2006 fiscal year.
Medicare managers said they
could not release figures for how much PRG-Schultz was claiming as
commissions for finding the alleged overcharges, saying the information was
proprietary. But based on bounties of 28 percent that were used in
establishing the program, PRG-Schultz's entitlement could be as much as $29
million.
The California Hospital
Association said in a letter to Medicare administrators in November that
PRG-Schultz should be suspended for improperly applying Medicare rules and
using unqualified personnel.
PRG-Schultz declined to
comment. But officials of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
steadfastly defended PRG-Schultz, saying it's applying rules on medically
necessary admissions that probably have been ignored in California for years.
PRG-Schultz "coming to
town is probably the first real look at these hospitals in many, many
years," said Melanie Combs, senior technical adviser for the federal
program.
"These rules have been
on the books since 1985," Combs said. "Maybe it's possible some
have been overlooking them. Maybe there have been consultants out there
helping hospitals to, quote, maximize reimbursements. And maybe perhaps some
of that has entailed looking the other way."
A call to Blum Capital
Partners - of which Blum is board chairman - asking for comment was not
returned.
PRG-Schultz reported a
first-quarter profit this year of $1.5 million, compared to a $10 million
loss for the same period in 2006.
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google feinstein and war
profiteering
red china, indian casinos, la raza
open borders, there really isn’t anywhere she hasn’t sold us out for a buck!
FEINSTEIN PROTECTS HER PAYING JOHN
FROM IMPEACHMENT:
Dear Sheep of America: Thank you
for your letter concerning impeachment proceedings against President Bush. I
appreciate the time you took to write and welcome the opportunity to respond.
In our recent elections, the American people expressed clear disapproval with
the path this country was on. They are tired of partisan politics and of an
Administration that pays little heed to the wishes of the American people. They
want-and deserve-a Congress that holds the Administration accountable and
fulfills its Constitutional responsibility to check and balance the Executive.
I share this sentiment and am determined to work hard and across party lines in
the United States Senate to promote issues that are of real concern to most
Americans, including the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, homeland security,
global warming, and lobbying and election reform. At this time, however, I
believe that impeachment proceedings against President Bush will only divide
the country even further, frustrating our hopes for a meaningful change in
direction, while having little chance of success. I have been deeply
disappointed by many of this Administration's actions and have been outspoken
in those instances. Nevertheless, given the challenges our country faces I
believe that we need to focus on constructive and cooperative steps that would
lead us in the right direction. Again, thank you for your continued
correspondence. If you have any further questions or comments, please contact
my office in Washington, D.C. at (202) 224-3841. Best regards. Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein THE WHITE HOUSE WHOREUnited States SenatorFurther information
about my position on issues of concern to California and the Nation are
available at my website http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/.
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Illegal-immigration blues WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL As
neighboring states like Virginia make it increasingly difficult for illegal
aliens to get driver’s licenses, Maryland is increasingly becoming an island —
a state that stands alone as a weak point when it comes to maintaining the
integrity of driver’s licenses. Maryland is one of just five states that do not
require that driver’s license applicants be able to show they are in the United
States legally, according to the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA).
Bills introduced by Sen. David Brinkley, Frederick Republican (S.B. 621) and
Delegate Ron George, Anne Arundel Republican, requiring that applicants for
driver’s licenses provide a birth certificate or other evidence showing that
they are legally present in the United States, have stalled. With just 15 days
left before the conclusion of the regular 2008 session of the General Assembly,
chances for both bills are fading fast. In the 141-member House, Mr. George has
58 sponsors — all 37 Republicans plus 21 Democrats — for his bill (H.B. 288) to
require that effective Oct. 1, license applicants must be able to demonstrate
by that they are legally present in Maryland. The measure is being bottled up
in the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Delegate Joseph Vallario, Prince
George’s Democrat, who is strongly opposed. And Mr. Vallario would be unable to
do this without the active support of his legislative boss: House Speaker
Michael Busch, Anne Arundel Democrat. Mr. O’Malley is in a very difficult
political position. In January, the governor and Transportation Secretary John
Porcari had put forward a plan to replace the current license system with a
two-tier plan similar to the ill-fated one proposed last year by Gov. Eliot
Spitzer, in which persons legally in the United States could get a license they
could use to board airplanes or enter federal buildings. But Mr. Spitzer’s plan
had collapsed several months earlier, and Mr. O’Malley’s popularity ratings had
plummeted to the point that his popularity rating was lower than that of
President Bush. According to a Fox 5/The Washington Times/Rasmussen Reports
poll released in early January, Marylanders gave the governor a 33 percent
job-approval rating, slightly below Mr. Bush’s rating. The poll also showed
that 66 percent of respondents favored giving police the right to check the
immigration status of drivers when they are pulled over for a traffic
violation, while 76 percent said illegals should be barred from obtaining
driver’s licenses. But at the same time, however, the governor was coming under
pressure from CASA of Maryland — the state’s number one lobbying group for
illegal aliens — not to yield at all. For now, the O’Malley administration’s
legislative priority is killing off the Brinkley and George Bills. So, the MVA
has quietly released position papers which take no official position on either
bill, raising questions about the costs and "confusion" resulting
from the new regulations (welcome to government 101). Bureaucratic niceties
aside, the bottom line is this: if H.B. 288 and S.B. 621 die this year, the
governor believes that in 2009, with a Democrat in the White House, tougher
standards for obtaining driver’s licenses will whither on the vine.
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