Quantcast
Channel: Medical Business Associates, Inc » Medicare Fraud
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 10

To Be or Not to Be (a Whistle Blower) that Is the Question

0
0

A follow up blog to a post concerning a nurse who was jailed and fined for reporting a doctor… It looks like justice was served in the end.

An Unfair Complaint

A Texas nurse is waiting to stand trial. For what you might ask… Illegal prescription use? Theft? Wrongful death? How about none of the above? Anne Mitchell is facing trial because she is a whistle blower and the doctor in question protested to the sheriff in the small Texas town that he was being harassed and defamed for no reason.

Mitchell wrote an anonymous letter complaining about Dr. Arafiles practices and “mishaps” – including a failed skin graft performed without surgical privileges, suturing a rubber tip to a patient’s crushed finger for protection and a large affinity to herbal supplements which he sold as a side business – to the medical board.

This “anonymous” letter was brought to the attention of Dr. Arafiles who immediately filed a complaint to his friend the sheriff who then issued a search warrant to seize the nurse’s computer and found the letter.

Mitchell had worked for the hospital system for over 20 years. She is a much respected member of the nursing community. She loved her job and only wanted the best for patients. She was doing what every nurse should do – report wrongdoing and highly questionable (on numerous occasions) practices performed by Dr. Arafiles.

Mitchell was charged of misuse of official information, a third-degree felony punishable by prison time and was also fired from her job at the hospital.

A Just Outcome

A jury found Mitchell not guilty. Karma also reared her ugly head, with Dr. Arafiles, the sheriff, and a hospital administrator faced criminal charges in connection with the prosecution and with the firing of Mitchell. The defendants agreed to pay Mitchell and another nurse who was fired as well $375,000 a piece for the wrongful firing.

The state medical board also charged Dr. Arafiles with poor medical judgment, nontherapeutic prescribing, failure to maintain adequate records, overbilling, witness intimidation, and other violations.

Following Dr. Arafiles’ hearing, the board gave the doctor the choice of 2 remedial education programs for physicians along with 8 hours of continuing medication education in medical record-keeping and another 8 hours in evaluating and treating thyroid disease. He has also been put on probation for 4 years and fined $5,000.

Final Lesson

Putting whistle blowers in prison would seem to be a deterrent to those in the future that witness wrongdoing. While there are certainly those that “blow their whistle” in hopes to receiving a grand payday, there are also concerned individuals that do the right thing and report the wrongdoings and injustices they witness.

We have laws in place to protect whistle blowers from retaliation. These laws are necessary to protect individuals who do the right thing and are not afraid of being call “tattletales.”

The whole point of protecting whistle blowers is to give people an incentive to report. Without an incentive we can expect fraud, theft etc. to only increase in the healthcare system.

Thanks for reading!

Your healthcare resource – Rebecca Busch


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 10

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images