LA doctor accused of faking exams for immigrants

Doesn’t this give you confidence in our immigration system? The Associated Press reports Officials: LA doctor faked immigrant medical exams: 

A Los Angeles doctor has been arrested for allegedly falsifying the results of medical exams for immigrants applying for visas.

Officials say 72-year-old Levon Tebelekian is charged with fraud and making false statements after a joint investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the California Medical Board.

ICE’s Miguel Unzueta says immigrants applying for permanent residency must undergo a medical exam to ensure they don’t have any medical conditions or diseases that could threaten public health.

Investigators say immigrants paid Tebelekian up to $150 to complete the medical examination form, but never saw the doctor.

If convicted, the physician faces up to 80 years in prison.

The local NBC station adds this charming anecdote:

In one case, he allegedly told an undercover ICE agent that he was not going to “disturb his blood” and that he “did not look like he had AIDS,” according to an affidavit.

But why should the doctor be prosecuted? Obama is lifting the ban on immigrants and travelers with HIV/AIDS anyway, as Ann reported last week.

Obama Administration to lift ban on immigrants/travelers with HIV/AIDS

President Obama, while signing legislation yesterday that extends taxpayer funding of medical care and treatment to people with HIV, announced the final steps to lifting a ban on those entering the US with HIV/AIDS.  Guess we will be taking care of more of the world’s HIV population right here.*   From the Boston Globe:

WASHINGTON – President Obama said yesterday that the United States will overturn a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban against people with HIV early next year.

The order will be finalized on Monday, Obama said, completing a process begun during the Bush administration. The United States has been among a dozen countries that bar entry to travelers with visas or anyone seeking a green card based on their HIV status.

This next section of the article is inaccurate because refugees with HIV have been allowed entry.  The reporter should have used the word ‘immigrants’ instead of ‘refugees.’

The law effectively has kept out thousands of students, tourists, and refugees and has complicated the adoption of children with HIV.

Those countries still banning people with HIV/AIDS are as follows.  I wonder at the accuracy of the list.   Do Iran and Syria, for example, let in people with the disease? 

The 11 other countries that ban HIV-positive travelers and immigrants are Armenia, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Sudan, according to the advocacy group Immigration Equality.

I don’t have the time, but if you are interested you might want to visit Immigration Equality and see if you can find any mention of the list.

* The Bush Administration is credited with spending a lot of money in Africa to fight HIV/AIDS, but I just talked with a young man in my town who spent 2 years in Africa recently with the Peace Corps.  He said the Africans in his area of Africa refused the condoms because they believed they were contaminated with the AIDS virus and that it was a US plot to infect them.   Consequently, his Peace Corps compatriots who were assigned to work on HIV/AIDS had nothing to do.

Stimulus money goes to research on ethnic old people

Your tax dollars:

What happened to repairs on roads and bridges?  What happened to shovel-ready projects to put people to work?   It seems to me that the only people put to work here are government-funded scientists who shouldn’t have much trouble finding work.   Now, if this were a nurses training program for nurses who are going to take care of millions of old people (including the minority elders), that would make some sense, but researchers?

Here is a story from New America Media (an ethnic news outfit)* entitled “Stimulus Boosts Research on Minority Elders” that caught my eye.   Some interesting bits of information in this article:

Green is part of a community-health pipeline at six major universities across the United States that just received a boost from stimulus grants. The National Institutes on Aging (NIA) created the program in 1997 to fill the void in health research needed to bring better care to ethnic elders – and the supply of scientists to do it.

The program — called the Resource Centers for Minority Elders Research (RCMAR) — recently received a $179,000 federal stimulus grant that will help revive a national effort placed on hold because of stagnant federal funding in recent years.

[.....]

“Stimulus money will help fund more research projects that can potentially improve the health of older ethnic populations, while at the same time creating more jobs in health research,” said Wallace, who also co-directs UCLA’s Center for Health Improvement for Minority Elders, one of the six RCMARs.

[.....]

Concern about meeting the unique needs of multicultural seniors grew as NIA scientists realized that the populations of ethnic elders will grow by more than 180 percent in the next two decades, more than double the rate of whites 65-plus.

[.....]

According to a 2008 NIA evaluation, RCMAR trained nearly 200 new researchers in aging, in its first decade, and 95 percent of the new gerontologists were from ethnic groups…

* It always amuses me when a publication (or any organization) brags about how it is geared to this or that ethnic group.  Imagine the outcry if a major on-line publication billed itself as a publication for news about white people.  Or how about an organization that applied for a federal grant as a minority white group in certain cities in the US!

Medicare fraud considered most profitable crime in America

Apparently last night CBS’s 60 Minutes did a segment on how a massive fraud was being perpetrated on the American taxpayer by Medicare scammers.   I don’t watch 60 Minutes anymore because it had become so politically correct, but I wish I had seen this show.  Does anyone know if they mentioned how involved various immigrant groups are in the fraud?  Or, is that just one more area where 60 Minutes wasn’t brave enough to venture?

This is from Newsbusters about the program:

“60 Minutes” did a fabulous exposé Sunday on Medicare fraud that should be required viewing for all people who support a government run healthcare program in this country.

The facts and figures presented by CBS’s Steve Kroft were disturbing as were the details concerning how shysters bilk the system for an estimated $60 billion a year.

Kroft said:

In fact, Medicare fraud – estimated now to total about $60 billion a year – has become one of, if not the most profitable crimes in America.

We have on many occasions reported on how various immigrant groups, especially Somalis, have set up “home health care” services which then bill Medicare (Medicaid too) for fraudulent services and supplies.   See here, here, here and here for some of those posts.

This is from an article about Houston health care fraud which I reported on here, but I see the original link is now gone.  I’ll bet Eric Holder’s PC gang at the Justice Department had this removed!

Investigators say one reason Medicare fraud is on the rise in Houston is a steady influx of immigrants who, in some instances, consider gaming the government for benefits an acceptable practice, said one top Justice Department investigator, speaking on condition he would not be identified.

“There’s a real problem of health care fraud in recent immigrant communities — we see it everyday,” the official said. “One of the reasons is you’re looking at people who don’t come up through the educational system, they’re impoverished, they think this country is very rich, and they don’t view taking advantage of a government program as a crime.”

I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the medical transport service, whose poorly maintained van was involved in the death of Burundian refugees in Arizona, is involved in this medicare racket, here.

Also, I would like to know what connection SEIU has with this method of redistributing the wealth since they are so hot on expanding the number of immigrant home health workers and getting them signed up as members of SEIU, here.

There needs to be a  blog exclusively for Medicare/Medicaid fraud, maybe there is one, does anyone know?

Emerging Infectious Diseases: a useful site at the CDC

The Centers for Disease Control has an interesting section entitled ‘Emerging Infectious Diseases’ that you might find a useful resource.    I came across it just now and note this recent article and study about the health of Burmese refugees arriving in Australia.

As we consider the cost of health care in America, the health of refugees should be considered.

We have a category here at RRW called ‘where to find information’ and I’ll post this link there for your future reference.  I found that one need only use the sites search function for “refugees”  (presumably the search could be narrowed to specific refugee groups) to find all sorts of interesting studies on refugee health issues.

Senate Dems vote down ID requirement for immigrant healthcare access

From The Hill:

Senate Finance Committee Democrats rejected a proposed a requirement that immigrants prove their identity with photo identification when signing up for federal healthcare programs.

Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said that current law and the healthcare bill under consideration are too lax and leave the door open to illegal immigrants defrauding the government using false or stolen identities to obtain benefits.

Grassley’s amendment was beaten back 10-13 on a party-line vote.

The bill, authored by committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), would require applicants to verify their names, places of birth and Social Security numbers. In addition, legal immigrants would have to wait five years, as under current law, after obtaining citizenship or legal residency to access federal healthcare benefits such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program or receive tax credits or purchase insurance through the exchange created by the legislation.

But the would not require them to show a photo ID, such as a drivers license. Without that requirement, the bill “remains dearly lacking when it comes to identification,” Grassley said. “Frankly, I’m very perplexed as to why anyone would oppose this amendment,” he said.

By the way, refugees do not have to wait 5 years to access welfare programs.

SEIU, Somalis, and home health care

Update October 21st:  Big Government has yet another update here.

Update October 12th:  Big Government has an update here.

For some time now I’ve been thinking about several strands of information that appeared interwoven, but exactly how I wasn’t sure.  I still don’t have all the pieces but I’m getting closer thanks to two bits of information this week—one from Kathleen Parker, the other from a Catholic blogger in Illinois.

This is what I already knew:  the Service Employees International Union was/is organizing Somalis* (probably other immigrants too), and Somalis have been implicated in at least Maine and Minnesota (this post has links to both stories) with home health care fraud.   Basically, how that works is the former refugees and immigrants set up home health care businesses where they get paid by the taxpayer to ‘take care of’ family and friends whose medical issues may be dubious at best.  The original concept—keeping people out of nursing homes—was probably a good one, but it has become an enormous arena for health care fraud.

Here is a New York Times article from last spring about the financial overload of the Minnesota system for home health care thanks to the Somalis.

Somali patients have been asking them to fill out forms stating that they need personal-care assistants. Some do not need the help, Dr. Pryce said, but are being egged on by Somali-run health care agencies that want to collect insurance payments for the services.

Somalis in Minneapolis, often entrepreneurial and business minded, have opened the agencies to take advantage of relatively generous rules in Minnesota that were originally meant to help keep the elderly and chronically ill out of nursing homes.
Tricia Alvarado, director of home care for the Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency, which evaluates requests for home help, agreed that there had been an explosion of Somali agencies, with 100 or so opening in just the last three years. Many are run by people without any medical training. And Ms. Alvarado confirmed that the agencies were putting a hard sell on potential clients.

[....]

The current situation with the Somalis is part of a larger problem in Minnesota: the number of clients, and the costs of personal care, more than doubled from 2002 to 2008, and the number of agencies more than tripled. A report in January by the state legislative auditor said, “Personal care services remain unacceptably vulnerable to fraud and abuse”; the state is drawing up plans to tighten its control of the services.

Now jump to Kathleen Parker yesterday, here.  (Yes, Ms. Parker is one of the faux conservatives who criticized Sarah Palin and loved Obama in 2008.   I guess we should be happy she has finally figured out what’s going on.)   I’ll get to the point I was most interested in shortly, but to set the stage here is some of the beginning of her colunm.

While everyone in Washington is suddenly pretending they’ve hardly ever heard of ACORN, they might want to pretend they’ve never heard of the SEIU, one of the nation’s largest unions.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and the Service Employees International Union are as tight as Heidi Klum and a new pair of jeans.

[....]　

You also don’t talk about either organization without mention of Wade Rathke, co-founder of ACORN and founder of SEIU Local 100 in New Orleans. Rathke, who resigned from ACORN last year as “chief organizer” after it became known that his brother embezzled almost $1 million from the association, continues to run Local 100, as well as ACORN International, recently renamed Community Organizations International.

[....]

Now picture a triangle. One point is ACORN; another point is the SEIU; the third point is the taxpayer. Now picture arrows flowing back and forth, representing the exchange of greenbacks and services.

Parker goes on to tell us that in Kansas last week, the State declined to give SEIU the names of all the people in the state caring for people at home!  Good for Kansas!

Just last week, the Kansas City Star reported that two state agencies acting on an SEIU public records request sought to identify in-home health workers who care for the elderly and disabled. After complaints, the state acknowledged that it was under no legal obligation to provide the information and ceased helping the SEIU. Unionizing is not a state function, needless to say. And never mind the invasion of privacy.

Now, skipping over to Illinois  where unionizing is obviously a state function,we begin to see the pieces coming together.   Parker goes on to tell us that the SEIU has had success in the land of Obama with finding out who provides home health care there.

One needn’t be a mathematician to imagine what a national health-care option might mean to a union in search of new dues-paying recruits. The SEIU, which has promised “to fight tooth and nail” for a public option, is demonstrably persuasive. In Illinois, former governor Blagojevich (thank you for your patience) helped position the SEIU so that it could unionize health-care workers when he signed an executive order allowing collective bargaining.

If you are still scratching your head and asking, o.k. so how does the SEIU get more dues-paying members out of this, the Catholic blogger I mentioned in my opening paragraph (not some big name blogger, just apparently some local lady) provides the shocking answer.

Southern Illinois Catholic says:

Pat Quinn [present Illinois governor] passed a horrible pr[o]-union law that permits the unionization of private individual caregivers. That is parents, eg, of disabled persons. Guess what? If the person votes against unionizing, but a majority of persons vote for a union, all caregivers will owe union dues–for the responsibility of caring for their own child! Illinois is apparently NOT a right to work state.

The state money that a family gets for the disabled person’s care will go in the pocket of a labor union. Insane. The goal which will appeal to families is that the union is going to lobby the state government for higher stipends for the disabled person, from which the union will, thank you very much, take its cut. Terrible for all Illinois taxpayers. This is abominable. Join a special interest group for disabled person’s families and caregivers, not a union.

It looks like it’s going to come to pass, however, at this point. Horrible. Horrible. The unions starved for membership, exploit families of disabled persons.

Be sure to read the news article linked at Southern Illinois Catholic.

So what does the SEIU do with all its taxpayer funds?  It works to elect people who believe in their socialist world view—like Obama.

Update minutes later:  Big Government has more on SEIU/ACORN/Illinois here.

*For new readers:  The US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US in the last 25 years and then last year had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.  Somalis are ideal candidates to work with SEIU!

Democrats pushing health care coverage for illegal aliens

And, for immediate coverage for all legal immigrants. 

From The Washington Times this morning:

Fearful that they’re losing ground on immigration and health care, a group of House Democrats is pushing back and arguing that any health care bill should extend to all legal immigrants and allow illegal immigrants some access.

The Democrats, trying to stiffen their party’s spines on the contentious issue, say it’s unfair to bar illegal immigrants from paying their own way in a government-sponsored exchange. Legal immigrants, they say, regardless of how long they’ve been in the United States, should be able to get government-subsidized health care if they meet the other eligibility requirements.

[....]

Coverage for immigrants is one of the thorniest issues in the health care debate, and one many Democratic leaders would like to avoid. But immigrant rights groups and the Democrats who sent the letters say they have to take a stand now.

Most federal benefits for legal immigrants kick in at 5 years, however….

Under the 1996 welfare law overhaul, Congress restricted most federal benefits to longtime holders of green cards – those who have been in the country at least five years.

But Democrats chipped away at that rule when they reauthorized the State Children’s Health Insurance Program earlier this year and allowed states to cover all immigrant children and pregnant women, regardless of how long they’ve been in the country.

Refugees are eligible for all federal benefits almost immediately and that is one of the driving forces around the world for people to attempt to get “refugee” status as we see happening in those Thai refugee camps we told you about last night, here.

Poison pill!

Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, said proposals that include government coverage for illegal immigrants leave him incredulous.

“If anybody can, with a straight face, advocate that we should provide health insurance for people who broke into our country, broke our law and for the most part are criminals, I don’t know where they ever would draw the line,” he said.

Mr. King, who opposes Democrats’ health care plans in general, said illegal immigrant access in legislation “would be a poison pill that would cause health care to go down” to defeat.

Obama: Give illegal aliens amnesty so they can get health care

Here is a story that you will see everywhere today.  I got it from Drudge.   Ten days ago I predicted this in a post on how illegal aliens would be eligible for health care under the house bill HR3200.   This is what I said on September 8th:

Of course, the Administration is also figuring on getting amnesty through this coming year and all this would be moot—illegals would be magically transformed to legals over night, and a whole new wave of immigrants would be flowing across the border.

This is what Obama said this week:

President Obama said this week that his health care plan won’t cover illegal immigrants, but argued that’s all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage.

He also staked out a position that anyone in the country legally should be covered – a major break with the 1996 welfare reform bill, which limited most federal public assistance programs only to citizens and longtime immigrants. 

“Even though I do not believe we can extend coverage to those who are here illegally, I also don’t simply believe we can simply ignore the fact that our immigration system is broken,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday evening in a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. “That’s why I strongly support making sure folks who are here legally have access to affordable, quality health insurance under this plan, just like everybody else. 

Mr. Obama added, “If anything, this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all.”

So, what did I tell you above, Obama just figures the issue of whether health care reform covers illegals or not will be moot once he gets amnesty.

However, my question still remains, what is to stop new illegals and phony asylum seekers from coming across the border the very next day and creating a new wave of immigrants looking to become legal.

For a list of Obama Administration Amnesty supporters go here.

CIS: Illegal aliens would be covered under HR 3200

Update September 11th:   Rep Joe Wilson’s outburst calling Obama a liar on this issue the other night has served a very useful purpose, the media must now admit that what CIS says here is true.  Illegal aliens will receive health care benefits, from Gateway Pundit, here.

HR 3200 is the House version of Obama’s health care reform, and although Obama claims illegal aliens will not be covered, this report from the Center for Immigration Studies disputes that claim.

CIS:

Based on our analysis of Census Bureau data, we estimate that there are 6.6 million uninsured illegal immigrants in the United States who could be covered by the new health care reform bill (HR 3200). Even though HR 3200 states that illegal immigrants are not eligible for the proposed taxpayer-funded affordable premium credits, there is nothing in the bill to enforce this. An amendment was defeated in committee that would have required the use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, used by almost all other means-tested programs of this kind.

Read on here.

Of course, the Administration is also figuring on getting amnesty through this coming year and all this would be moot—illegals would be magically transformed to legals over night, and a whole new wave of immigrants would be flowing across the border.

The Obama Administration began gathering its amnesty lobbying forces last month here.  Check out the list, it’s an amazing array of interest groups, churches, unions, and big business.