Friday, April 23, 2010

Illinois: Cashing in on Frail Patients

‘Horrific’ moneymaking scheme shuttled sick, elderly between nursing homes and hospitals at taxpayer expense.

Dr. Roland Borrasi chuckled as he told three doctors how he used kickbacks and cash bribes to shuttle unsuspecting nursing home residents into Chicago-area hospitals and psychiatric wards.

"Basically, I have a commodity; my commodity is nursing home patients," Borrasi explained.

He didn't know it at the time, but federal agents were secretly recording that meeting.

One of the doctors was wearing a wire as Borrasi matter-of-factly explained the mechanics of patient brokering to physicians in his medical group.

Those recordings, along with court documents and federal investigative reports obtained by the Tribune, describe a web of corruption in which hundreds of thousands of dollars flowed among doctors, nursing home executives and hospital administrators as the facility operators sought to fill their beds with a steady flow of destitute patients.

While taxpayers paid millions of dollars in fraudulent Medicaid and Medicare bills, one Alzheimer's patient was given inappropriate brain radiation treatments, a Borrasi associate told federal agents. A second patient, a disoriented elderly woman, was sent to an acute psychiatric ward after she refused to eat in her nursing home dining hall, another medical professional told federal agents.

"The fact that … greed subordinated the care of elderly and infirm patients who really needed it is horrific at best," federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing earlier this year after Borrasi was sentenced for accepting more than $500,000 in kickbacks to steer vulnerable patients. Prosecutors described "the scope and breadth of the bribes" as "extraordinary."

Full Article and Source:
Cashing in on Frail Patients

10 comments:

Lou said...

Maybe a good sentence for Dr. Borrasi's crime would be to shuffle him back and forth between psychiatric wards and nursing home as a bed is open. Keep him in lock down units and allow him no communication with competent people, no access to his money, feed him crappy food and IF he complains... drug him!

Holly said...

Just one more example of NO PROTECTION for the vulnerable. There are similiar crimes being committed by Lawyers, Judges, Court Appointed Guardians and Fiduciaries. The vulnerable are often isolated, fed anti-psychotic drugs and their estate is stolen & wasted by the very people who are to protect it! These people are often protecting their own lies and deception using the victims estate to do so.
My mother is currently a victim of this type of crime in Port Orange, Florida, Volusia County!
My opinion passed on to the elderly is... don't vacation there! They may put you under guardianship and refuse to let you go home to your friends and family. My mother who is a resident and domicile of PA is currently being kept in Florida by the lies, many of which are right in the court record, by Jetta Getty, Professional Guardianas & owner of "Young at Heart Elderly Services." My family got service we weren't expecting!!!
I have all documentation to back up my statements here so, please contact me for more information at hlpeffer@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

Rather than being sentenced to jail, Dr. Borrasi should be given a taste of his own medicine.

Mark said...

How many vulnerable and helpless people have suffered here? I am glad to see IL turning up the heat.

timlahrman said...

I am glad to see the fed is turning up the heat .....

this bastar* who thinks humans are commodities ought to be trafficed to South Korea and forced to wander across the border to North Korea --- or better yet, he should be used as chumm for shark fishing in the pacific ocean ---- chumm is a commodity you know.

jerri said...

money machine is right ~ how many of these victims were wards of the state?

who was their guardians that went along with this scheme?

and how much did the guardian get in kickbacks?

welcome to Illinois folks land of crooks thank you David Jackson and Gary Marx, Tribune reporters and thanks to the Chicago Tribune for your courgage to take this on is say keep digging on this check out the probate files at the courthouses to see how many victims were and are wards of the state of Illinois we know this is going on in all 50 states the feds need to do some raiding it would be worth their time, lives and money would be saved

Anonymous said...

CASHING IN is right! It's all about money - the human element and suffering are ignored.

Sue said...

People churned into products for profit. Who is next?

MaeEliz said...

This is so infuriating! How can any human being treat another human being in this way?
and then the audacity to bragg about it!!
He deserves to burn in hell forever!

jerri said...

i agree but i would like the crook to burn in hell but i want that now i learned not to ask why people with criminal minds do what they do if one doesnt have a conscience its all about them what they want and what they want is $$$$$$$$$$$$ for themselves pradators and their prey who is next?