US Attorney Firing: Voter Fraud, Medicare Fraud, WHICH IS IT ??? [View All]

[L. Coyote]

A previous thread on this topic is locked because a previous thread to
that was removed because it mentioned a source considered "dubious at best" on DU:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x849449#853598

PLEASE, do as the censors say so we can investigate the US Attorney firings.
Do not link the McCaskill letter from that forbidden domain.

So, let's try to investigate this some more:

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When did the US Attorney Firings controversy really begin?

I discovered some new possibilities while researching this thread:
Missouri attorney a focus in USA firings = Bradley Schlozman
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x832164

THIS is the article that garnered my interest:
Former MO US Attorney Todd Graves the Ninth Attorney Targeted by Alberto Gonzales
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x832164

Kansas City, MO 04/09/07 - Medical Supply Chain founder Samuel Lipari unearthed a US Department of Justice memo revealing the Office of the Attorney General had targeted not eight but ten US Attorneys including the former attorney for the Western District of Missouri, Todd P. Graves. The documents were obtained during Medical Supply Chain's discovery ..... e-mail dated January 9th, 2006 from Kyle Sampson, .....

The Western District of Missouri US Attorney office under Todd P. Graves had been active in prosecuting Medicare fraud.....

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I also found this article:

Hijacking at the Hospital
Purchasing groups created to hold down health costs seem to be holding up patients instead.
By PABLO LASTRA - Feature: Wednesday, November 23, 2005
http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=3419

.................

Novation, a North Texas company that, while little known to the average person, has become the largest broker of hospital and medical supplies in the country, wielding enormous influence over the lives of patients, the safety of hospital workers, and the zooming costs of healthcare in this country. But it’s also a giant in trouble. Several small medical supply manufacturers that say they have been squeezed out of the market by Novation are lining up to sue, and the company has already paid out millions of dollars in settlements. Congress is in its third year of investigating Novation’s activities. At least one state attorney general is investigating the company. And now the company is a target of a Dallas-based investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office into massive allegations of Medicare fraud — a probe that has been hampered by the deaths, within the last 18 months, of two of the prosecutors involved in it.

The irony is that Novation and other entities like it — called group purchasing organizations — were invented to help hospitals save money. But instead of saving patients money, many people charge, Novation, in effect, is working on behalf of manufacturers and suppliers, helping them — and Novation itself — to make as much money as possible, to the detriment of taxpayers and the healthcare-buying public. Moreover, a recent deal involving a publicly traded partner of Novation has raised more concerns about its position in the healthcare industry, which verges ever closer to a monopoly. All while prices for medical supplies — paid for by insurers, patients, and taxpayers — continue to escalate at a rate far outpacing inflation.

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In 1986, Congress passed legislation regulating GPOs, including the so-called “safe harbor” agreement that exempts GPOs from federal laws against kickbacks. The rationale was that allowing GPOs to be financed by “administrative fees” paid by suppliers would allow hospitals to spend their money on patient care. Hospitals that belong to GPOs are obligated to buy supplies from them.

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Here is another article on the issue:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Sandbagged Novation LLC Prosecution
Written by Samuel Lipari
Kansas City, MO -- Apr 16, 2007 -- /prbuzz/ --
http://www.prbuzz.com/attorney-general-alberto-gonzales-sandbagged-novation-llc-prosecution-2136.html


On July 30, 2006 the British newspaper the Daily Mail reported that Novation was under a bribes probe by the US Department of Justice stating Novation; “…is being investigated by American prosecutors following accusations that it has accepted huge 'bribes' from medical manufacturers.”

.... the US Department of Justice investigation of Novation’s conduct as a hospital group purchasing organization or “GPO” and quoted Professor Prakash Sethi, president of the International Center for Corporate Accountability at Baruch College in New York who stated “My most conservative estimates suggest that GPOs extract extra profits of $5 billion (£2.6 billion) to $6 billion which legitimately belong to their principal clients, the hospitals.”

After Alberto Gonzales became Attorney General on February 3, 2005, the investigation of Novation was suppressed even though insider Novation executives came forward to the US Department of Justice with evidence of laundering hospital funds through the publicly traded electronic hospital supply marketplace Neoforma, Inc. that was then controlled by Novation, Volunteer Hospital Association (VHA), and University Health System Consortium (UHC) and is now owned by the electronic hospital supply marketplace GHX, LLC.

In an April 18, 2005 affidavit, Medical Supply Chain founder Samuel Lipari complained about FBI misuse of USA PATRIOT Act surveillance powers. .....

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