Posted on 12/02/2024 7:28:51 PM PST by xxqqzz
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Daniel J. Castro, a former doctor at Bronson Battle Creek, will spend the next five years in federal prison for a healthcare fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
He will also undergo two years of supervised release and will pay $1,972,293.74 in restitution to victims, including the Medicare and Medicaid programs, multiple private health insurers, Bronson Hospital and his former patients.
From February 2015 to May 2017, Castro performed medically unnecessary sinus surgeries, which frequently involved falsifying medical reports about his patients' symptoms and the findings of CT scans to make it appear that the surgeries were justified, the department reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at wwmt.com ...
Ear, Nose, and Throat doctors and urologists are supposed to be particularly bad, because they are regular specialists, but also do surgery, and they make a lot more from surgery.
I had a procedure for prostate swelling. My prostate seemed OK afterwards and not blocking anything and the bladder test came out OK. My urologist said he was "stumped", so I made appointments with other urologists, weeding out those with bad reviews that seemed relevant. The second one I went to ordered more tests and said he would refer me to a subspecialist on the particular problem.
However, the first one I went to put his finger up my behind and said it felt like still 70 grams. The urologist who did the surgery measured it as going down from 70 to 45 grams. Then he looked up a scope through the front and said it was blocked by the prostate. Said the procedure I had wouldn't work on a 70 gram prostate and said I needed another prostate procedure. So I knew one of the doctors was flat out lying. Then, when I left his receptionist called me and said I needed to fill out the form. I asked what form. She said the consent to surgery for the procedure you discussed. I told a nurse relative, who said it was highly unethical to ask me to sign that when I hadn't agreed to that procedure with that doctor. Some of these doctors operate on just this side of the law.
medical malpractice is rampant. I’ve seen it firsthand more than once.
My home town and current city. One more reason not to go to Bronson.
A surgical procedure consent forms is NEVER signed in a doctors office ever always at hospital/Outpatient surgical facility the day of
Yeah, I had never had surgery before last year, but had procedures to put in kidney tubes, then a prostate procedure. Also 4 cortizone shots in my spine for an accident injury. Every time, I signed the consent form just before the procedure.
My nurse relative said it could be signed a couple of weeks before, but not on the first visit without the patient having agreed to the procedure and doctor.
Maybe if I had signed the consent form, they would have wheeled me into surgery right away.
No.
Surgery requires prep time. You would need to stop taking certain medications, you would need to fast for 12 hours, have someone who could drive you home and care for you once you were there and a bunch of other stuff.
The exception to all of this would be emergency surgery which is often proceeded by having your stomach pumped. A most unpleasant experience but better than dying.
Did they want to do a Uro-Lift on you? Because that is one that you should refuse.
I had the Rezum steam procedure done. It seemed to have less chance of permanent damage or serious complication, but I had a slow difficult recovery, which apparently is sort of standard for it.
The doctor who wanted me to sign the consent form suggest the TURP electrical procedure. When I indicated it would do too much damage, he suggested the ablation water procedure, which is probably the most expensive. That is what he wanted me to sign the consent form for.
Ok, no they would not have wheeled you right into surgery but you were right to refuse to sign.
I was sort of joking about being wheeled into surgery. However, it seemed like that doctor was faking that the previous prostate procedure didn’t work. He said it felt like 70 grams and looked through a scope, but didn’t really measure it. Then tried to get me to immediately sign a consent to surgery.
He would do another procedure for no reason except to make money. There are probably some doctors pulling this sort of thing, but not bad enough to get arrested. Like they do 3 operations on someone’s foot, etc.
...very interesting and sad article.....I am familiar with one state’s Medicaid program that saw an unusual number of “foot surgeries” claims being submitted by podiatrists for nursing home patients...upon further investigation, these were not surgeries at all...the podiatrists were performing toenail trimming and billing these as “surgeries”.....
A few years ago my son had surgery. While on a coffee run I bumped into the surgeon in the elevator. She introduced me to another surgeon.
That dirtbag charged me $800 for a consult. In an elevator.
Fortunately my wife has some strong accounting skills and we caught that little tidbit in the plethora of bills and put an immediate stop to it.
Ya NO.. this is where a lot of medical fraud happens!
My insurance quit paying for prostate exams because they were always “finding something”. I finally had a PSA when I went on Medicare and the results were so low, they were addressed to Ms Appypappy.
Do you have the website for the PI attorney you reference?
It's the same for car mechanics, politicians, journalists, scientists, researchers, college teachers, processed food manufacturers, on and on. The whole world is one big zero trust environment, or close to zero. Hopefully AI is going to change everything for the better, which it could do just just by providing the first AI pocket bullsh*t detector, which governments will ban out of immediate necessity.
But if they slap "AI", which is a total lie, on it you will believe it's results?
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