Author: Justin Lane

It will cost $8 million to settle allegations that Dubuis Health System and Southern Crescent Hospital for Specialty Care, Inc. filed false claims for payment to Medicare, the Department of Justice announced last week. According to the allegations of the lawsuit the groups faced, the facilities were taking advantage of individuals needing long-term acute care. “Individuals needing care for complex and acute ailments are often unaware of how the hospital is billing for the care they are receiving,” commented James Kauffman, an attorney with the Levin, Papantonio law firm who practices in the areas of false claims and whistleblower...

In case you’ve forgotten, as we hope you have, the posterboys of right wing vitriol and punditry, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, regularly belittle people and make outrageous claims over national radio. However, their days on the partisan pulpit may be numbered, according to Politico. Rush Limbaugh Calls Sandra Fluke a Slut Sean Hannity Debates “Slut Walk” The independent news agency is reporting that Cumulus Media, the second largest radio broadcaster in America, will not renew its contracts with the men. Unfortunately, the reasoning for the break in the relationship is based in business rather than in standards or...

Below are Ring of Fire’s top stories from the past week. Top Video Scientists Warn, Last Time CO2 Levels This High, Seas Rose 65 Feet A study published in Nature Geoscience on the similarities between the Pliocene Epoch and today’s temperature, CO2 concentration, and sea level rise, may provide evidence of the impending fate of low-lying states like Florida and Louisiana. … Read more. Corporate Interests Killed Detroit It wasn’t quite a bad national economy or even the Detroit municipal pension program that threw the Motor City into bankruptcy, it was right-wing, pro-corporate fiscal policy that did it. So...

The continued effects of the PRISM exposure are being felt by U.S. technology companies. In the wake of the exposure that the United States has been performing one of the largest surveillance and data-capturing enterprises in human history, many online companies are feeling the pinch. Earlier this month, former President Jimmy Carter commented that the United States no longer has a “functioning democracy” and that the effect of this is extremely dangerous for American technology companies. More broadly, the effects of spying on American technology companies and the expectation of privacy many Americans have come to enjoy give ammunition...

“Can’t take payment kickbacks because you’re a ‘doctor’? That’s okay, we’ll just pay your spouse instead.” This has been the mantra of A Plus Home Health Care, Inc. since 2006. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has intervened in a lawsuit against the company for providing kickbacks to physicians through their spouses in exchange for referring patients to their facilities. “The practice of physicians receiving kickbacks for patient referrals undermines the trust a patient has that his or her physician is placing the patient’s care above their own personal interests,” commented Christopher Paulos, an attorney with the Levin, Papantonio law...