Pearls of Wisdom and Foolish Mutterings

Maybe What Goes Around Really Does Come Around...

Well, well, well. A really cool thing happened yesterday. After I reached deep inside myself and pulled up some of those buried memories about Mom and her journey through hell with hospice, I decided I should probably write a letter to someone - I wasn't sure who - the Attorney General, maybe? - and tell what had happened to her. I typed "hospice fraud" into the search bar on my browser and found that, lo and behold, someone had beat me to the punch.

I never mentioned the name of the hospice in my blog yesterday, but it was Odyssey Healthcare. As it turns out, a former regional VP of Odyssey blew the whistle on them for not adhering to the federal guidelines for hospice certifications and recertifications. The Justice Department got involved and Odyssey was ordered to pay $13 million to Medicare for defrauding them with illegal certs and recerts. They were also court-ordered to submit to a Corporate Integrity Agreement which requires them to employ and pay for an outside third-party firm to monitor and sanction their business operations for five years. Oddly enough, this all happened in July of 2006, just 5 short months after my mother's death.

Here's the link if anyone is interested:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/July/06_civ_430.html

I'm not naive enough to think that what amounts to basically a slap on the hand to one of the largest hospice providers in the country will address all the ills of a huge money-making enterprise, but at least it is a step in the right direction. And maybe it will make some of the other providers think twice when they are tempted to choose greed over the human element.

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On a completely different front......

Charles and Eli and I watched Frost/Nixon last night. I had heard that it didn't get very good reviews, it was boring, blah, blah, blah. But I thought it was well-done, although I thought the actor who played David Frost was a bit over the top. Frank Langella played Nixon and he nailed it. I give it  

My youngest daughter and her two boys spent the day with me yesterday. Nothing like grandkids to lift your spirits.