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Medicaid pays for the vaccines for Medicaid patients. Giving them to uninsured or commercially insured patients and then billing the patient or the insurance company is fraud. In addition, the person in the OP was not giving anyone full doses.
YES. It's both Medicaid fraud and insurance fraud. And now there are children (on either) only partially vaccinated because of this greedy individual.
No. They. I"m talking about an entire system that sees it as perfectly fine to give partial and ineffective doses of vaccines to kids whose families are not insured. I was under the assumption that vaccinations are a public health issue and people are having enough trouble trusting them as it is. Despite my holistic leanings and love of reading Dr. Mercola's newsletter, I've always been pro-vaxx and then I read this. What exactly is the point of ineffectively vaccinating children? Where else is this happening? I'm surprised "they" even let this story go out.
Take a look at the health care system for elders or adult protective services or child protective services..
Not surprised it's an interesting and troubling aspect of our culture.
So somebody correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that the point of vaccinating as many children as possible is better for overall public health and that they have now admitted that they are giving uninsured and underinsured children weaker doses of vaccines, which would be a public health menace, would it not? Gawd I am so naive.
There's no "they". This entire problem was created by 1 person who wanted to fatten their pockets, rip off the government, and cause potential harm to children. This was all about me me me me....not for the good of the patient.
I don’t think the OP understood the article. Where does it say that “they” or the health system is giving incorrect dosages to poor or uninsured children?
Right here:
Quote:
A Florida pediatrician was arrested on Friday after she allegedly inoculated hundreds of children with less than the required dose of vaccine. Dr. Ishrat Sohail has been charged with Medicaid fraud for allegedly giving patients with private insurance vaccines intended for Medicaid and uninsured children.
That's what it says, even if it's not true. Between the dishonesty and the stupidity, it's hard to believe anything you read in the mainstream media these days.
I totally got the wrong idea reading the article, too. Very poorly written. I'm surprised there wasn't an outcry about it and that it wasn't recounted and explained somewhere.
That's what it says, even if it's not true. Between the dishonesty and the stupidity, it's hard to believe anything you read in the mainstream media these days.
What it says is she gave incorrect dosages to 'children', not just poor or uninsured children, meaning she also gave the incorrect dosage to children that DID have insurance. That's one impropriety.
Quote:
A Florida pediatrician was arrested on Friday after she allegedly inoculated hundreds of children with less than the required dose of vaccine.
She used gov't. funded vaccines meant strictly for medicaid patients to give partial doses to children who had insurance and then billed those insurance companies. That's a second and different impropriety.
Quote:
Dr. Ishrat Sohail has been charged with Medicaid fraud for allegedly giving patients with private insurance vaccines intended for Medicaid and uninsured children.
There is no implication that this is 'the health stystem', it's just one doctor. There is no implication that the incorrect dosages were given only to poor children, simply that the medicaid vaccines were meant for poor children, which is accurate.
It could have been written more clearly but it's not saying that this doctor was out to abuse poor children, she was out to abuse all of them poor or not, and ripping off the insurance companies and medicaid as well. An equal opportunity shyster.
Because the state provides free vaccine for use in patients who are uninsured, or on Medicaid. For the patients who have insurance, the pediatrician is expected to buy vaccine, and bill the insurer for it. The actual vaccines used are usually identical. Sometimes, there is a decision by the pediatrician to purchase for private pay patients a different brand of vaccine than what the state is providing for Medicaid patients, not because one vaccine is better, but to actually try to avoid making a mistake and inadvertently use state purchase vaccine for private pay patients.
It's illegal to take free vaccine and give it to privately insured patients, and bill and collect for the vaccine as if the pediatrician had purchased it.
That being said, it does seem odd that she was suspended for just two doses from Medicaid supply being directed to private pay patients. A busy pediatrician's office could be administering thousands of doses a year. If she only made a mistake with two doses, doesn't seem like much of an error. Sounds like they were suspicious that something was going on - and now they know there was.
About fifteen years ago, a couple of pediatricians got into trouble for routinely taking Medicaid vaccines, using them for private pay patients, and billing insurance for the vaccines. They had done this for something like a decade, without getting caught. The insurance companies reported it to the attorney general's office, I think. So something was not right - could be that the amount of vaccine she was actually buying didn't match up with the amount she was billing the insurers.
Actually, it's the feds that provide the vaccines for the VFC program, even if it's distributed by the state, as in Colorado (at least when I was doing that type of work in CO). I agree that the vaccines are usually identical. Many vaccines are made by only one manufacturer. You can buy vaccines in pre-filled syringes if you're buying them privately, but the quality of vaccine is the same.
It's People.com, folks. Temper your expectations when it comes to accuracy and hard-hitting news reporting.
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What exactly is the point of ineffectively vaccinating children? Where else is this happening? I'm surprised "they" even let this story go out.
