When the "racism fart" appears and "curls your hair" don't dwell on it like dwelling on your grandpa's farts, "crack the window", "cover it up with potpourri" ("change the subject"). - Thoughts by Stephen Colbert on 7-30-09 on the Colbert Report
Apparently the officer found it acceptable to arrest someone for asking for his name and a badge number. Their stories differ as to whether there was racial issues involved. Both Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. & Sgt. James Crowley are RIGHT in my opinion! I also fully agree that the whole situation was stupid and should never happen in that fashion. The blame however, is NOT with Gates or Crowley.
The problem is overly vague, over-used and abused, and unconstitutional Disorderly Conduct laws, as well as improper or inadequate training of officers. Under the present DC laws in America, even if you yell in an upset voice in your own home or on your own porch when DEFENDING your civil rights, the police can unbelievably state you are disorderly.
Sgt. Crowley was wrongfully taught, like all officers, that if they say anything to a citizen and the citizen doesn’t instantly comply he is disorderly or resisting arrest. Resisting arrest is also abused by the police. A natural instinct is to resist handcuffing as this really is an assault. The law should be changed and narrowed so that if one twitches one will not be charged with resisting arrest, and verbal tirades against the officer should not be considered resisting arrest. Officers are supposed to be professional, despite verbal abuse.
The Sgt. is taught to lure loud persons, even if they are simply loudly protesting violation of the law and their civil rights, out into a public area so they can claim the person is disorderly. Prof. Gates should realize that officers have the most rudimentary understanding and training in the law. This is why they over-reach and abuse DC, trespass, and resisting arrest laws. They really don’t know what they mean in detail and the laws are too over-reaching and/or vague, making them ripe for abuse.
There is a concept of “void for vagueness” in law that a criminal statute is unconstitutional because it is impermissably vague. The US Supreme Court needs to hear a case like that of Prof. Gates if he should sue for unlawful arrest, malicious prosecution, and violation of civil rights. They need to clarify these laws and narrow and define them better so the public knows what they can and cannot do and police will no longer be able to abuse these DC, trespass, and resisting arrest laws by arresting anyone who disagrees with them, twitches, or claims harassment or false arrest.
Prof. Gates is right that African-Americans are still profiled and abused by the police. However, I do not think this was Sgt. Crowley’s main issue. His main issue appears to be the fact that he is an omnipotent, all-powerful, officer with unlimited power, who has been given an inch of power and taught to take a mile of power, who must be instantly obeyed no matter what he says.
I don’t say this to criticize Sgt. Crowley – this is what he was taught and as an officer, this is constantly re-enforced in his training. He is not at fault. His training and the vague and easily abused law is at fault. This is his understanding of his DUTY under the law. He should be taught that people have rights and one can de-escalate a situation by backing off and shutting up, instead of being in a persons face and challenging them when they are upset by the wrongful or mistaken actions of others.
We should also be pleased that the police responded to the call of someone breaking in the house. Sgt. Crowley appropriately asked Gates to initially step outside because he was there alone, needed to protect himself in the open, didn’[t know if Gates was the burgler or the homeowner and if homeowner, didn’t know if a burglar was still inside. However, we should insist they receive more training so that when they come on a situation and find out it is different than what they were told, they don’t act like robots and proceed to act as if the information was true or lure someone into an arrest just because they are being verbally challenged. This is the part I consider stupid. The whole thing would have been different if the law was clarified and Crowley would have backed off and not considered Gates “disorderly.”
I urge Prof. Gates, Sgt. Crowley, and President Obama to acknowledge these facts. I would like the three of them to meet and discuss these issues and come up with a plan to solve the problem. AG Eric Holder should be part of this meeting. If Obama is truly a mediator – HE SHOULD DO THIS! I am very happy that the Pres. has decided to keep this on the front burner as a "teaching moment' and invite both gentlemen to the White House for a pow wow.
For a range of opinions on this matter see: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/24/evening-buzz-the-president-the-professor-the-cop/
Actual copy of arrest reports (Sgt. Crowley’s story) see:
http://cnnac360.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/20120754.pdf
Prof. Gate’s story at:
http://archpundit.com/blog/2009/07/22/if-hed-just-obeyed-the-police-officer/
I am getting more and more disappointed. It appears the briefing book was just a carrot to get us to vote for Obama, but never was taken seriously by the Administration. Also I don't see any evidence that the Administration has heard the complaints about our corrupt justice system or the excess control over the health care reform package by Insurance Companies and Pharmaceutical Companies.
I fell we are being betrayed, misled, and abandoned. Use us and lose us. This blog is a waste!
Don't panic - it may even turn out to be only a moderate flu season. Don't believe all the hype. For factual information and recommendations see the following for my opinion - if questions ask your doctor:
http://drlindashelton.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/2008-mexican-flu-swine-flu-what-to-do/
Idol young people who have delayed educations, inadequate educations, and difficulty finding jobs are expected to delay marrying and having families. This fights biology as a persons most fertile period is in their late teens and early 20s. We need to analyze and deal with these facts.
Personally as a pediatrician, I found the highest teen birth rates in three groups. 1. Teens in distressed families (drug addict or absent parents [not single moms], poverty where parents are working 2-3 jobs, overextended and therefore technically absent and rich parents with unsupervised kids); 2. Teens in very religious families relying on abstinence, that wouldn't talk about sex, leaving kids to figure it out on their own (these kids constantly were super rebellious); and 3. idol teens who had no hobbies except hanging out with friends and who had self-esteem problems such that they would do anything to appear popular.
The saddest case that is a commentary on how we talk but don't help distressed teens and families was an eighth grade girl who told me she purposely got pregnant because she wanted someone to "love her." She had lived mainly on the streets taking care of herself in South Carolina (the bible belt) where social services were inadequate to help her. Her parents were unavailable. The churches, schools, and social services viewed her as important and worthwhile as a dead dog. What do you expect! Three girls in her class were pregnant that year.
Until we promote individual worth; provide adequate eduation so that kids are motivated to learn and therefore kept busy with self motivation(our high school education is like a junior high education in most civilized countries - teachers are in general miserably undertrained); teach kids the value of being involved with others and with activities such as the arts, volunteering, involvement with government and social services, gardening, sports without a goal of being a major leager; teach that community and family is more important than self and instant gratification or material goods; promote a village atmosphere where people in one small neighborhood or a few blocks in a city know each other, meet regularly with each other (difficult with two jobs and long commutes) and help each other (70 % of Americans don't know their neighbors); make real job training and jobs available to young men and women; reform laws so that like in Europe women can stay home with a child the first two years of life and still have a job available and career available when they return to work, we will make no progress in regards to teen births or abortions.
We need to shift our priorities and donations to the REAL problems that result in teen pregnancies and abortions. If we simply fight about ideology nothing will be accomplished. United We Stand, Divided We Fall. Perhaps it is time to agree to disagree on ideology and work together on issues that we all agree upon!
The benefits would be enormous. We would not just deal with teen pregnancies and reduce abortions, we would reduce crime and increase our countries productivity saving huge amounts of money and rebuilding our economy.
Dr Linda Shelton, who has devoted her life to service of others and particularly to providing medical and mental health services to the poor will be completely destroyed in two weeks with a false conviction for Illinois Medicaid Fraud simply for trying to help people on Medicaid obtain mental health care. Please read the following and help any way possible. I thank anyone who will help me.
This is a story epitomizing government corruption and greed, retaliation against whistle blowers, and gross government incompetence brought on by decades of fraud, patronage, and nepotism in Illinois.
Judge Jorge Alonso ruled on my pending criminal case where I am charged with Medicaid fraud that “substitute billing is illegal”. This is where a doctor sends a bill to the insurance company for services performed by his employee such as the service of a nurse administering a vaccine or a psychologist administering a psychological test, or a cast technician applying a cast. In my case the Illinois Attorney General claims that if a doctor bills Medicaid for counseling (for drug addiction, post-traumatic-stress disorder after rape, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, dementia, etc.) if the counseling or psychological testing was done by an employee and not directly by the physician then it is a felony crime.
If substitute, also known as incident to, billing is illegal than ALL doctors in Illinois are guilty of a felony crime of fraud! God Help Us! Judge Alonso is so eager to railroad me and convict me that he is violating his oath of office to uphold the laws of the land and the constitution. Due process, guaranteed by the Bill of Rights REQUIRES that he follow the law. He is BLATANTLY violating the law, either maliciously or ignorantly due to his arrogance, incompetence, bias to run and support the alleged prosecutor AG Lisa Madigan, or his ego.
Physicians are NOT trained to do psychological testing for personality disorders or mental illness. Psychologists at the master’s and Ph.D level are trained to do so. These tests are invaluable in helping determine the right diagnosis and the right course of treatment. Judge Alonso has ruled that those on Medicaid are not eligible for this type of evaluation and treatment as a result of his illegal and unconstitutional ruling.
Many non-physicians are licensed in Illinois and all states to provide Psychiatric & Psychological Services:
1. nurses 225 ILCS 65,2. clinical psychologists 225 ILCS 15,3. licensed social workers 225 ILCS 20,4. licensed clinical professional counselor 225 ILCS 107,5. licensed marriage and family therapist 225 ILCS 55 and 68 ILAC 1283
Judge Alonso’s illegal ruling denies all of these people the RIGHT to practice their profession and denies the citizens of Illinois on Medicaid the Right under the Federal Medicaid Act to access to care equivalent to the care provided in the community.
Federal Judge Joan Lefkow ruled in August 2004, at the end of a 12 year civil rights class action suit that “Illinois Medicaid Policies and Procedures are in Violation of the Federal Medicaid Code because they Deny Access to Care” to children on Medicaid. This ruling is applicable to all Medicaid patients but the ruling only applies to children. It needs to be expanded to cover all Medicaid patients.
The Federal Medicaid Code, 42 U.S.C. 1396A(a)(30)(A), [regarding adults and children covered under Medicaid and the EPSDT program] REQUIRES any State Medicaid program funded by the federal government to provide care equivalent to that obtainable from private insurers in the community to Illinois Medicaid clients.
Therefore, Judge Alonso’s ruling is unconstitutional, unfair, illegal, and amounts to his ruling to overturn the Federal Medicaid Code as well as Illinois Statutes licensing non-physician providers of mental health services. As > 80 % of mental health services are provided by non-physicians this essentially shuts out mental health services to all but a few in Illinois who are poor.
The Federal Court and U.S. Attorney should intervene as this is illegal and also a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act in terms of discrimination.
As to my case, I am charged with billing for mental health services never done and substitute billing for mental health services between June 2000 and April 2002 while “working” at Right Frame of Mind & Associates (RFOM). Over the last six months when I obtained access to the old business records for RFOM I discovered the fact is that the year before I started working for a group practice called RFOM, part-time providing chart review for quality, consultation about medical and psychiatric policies and procedures, and limited patient care, two woman, who were partners with the CEO and without the knowledge of the CEO, in 2000 fabricated hundreds of patient encounter forms (filled out by doctors or therapists as to what patient they saw, the diagnosis, and what service was provided), that are later translated into bills or invoices by the billing agent, for services they never did. These two women, Itadel Shalabi and Nareman Taha never met me as they were fired before I started working there in 2001.
I had major neurosurgery in July 2000 due to a congenital spinal problem that was crushing my spinal cord and leading progressively towards quadraplegia. I was incapacitated for six months and heavily sedated with narcotics and other drugs for much of that time. I had agreed in early 2000 at the request of the CEO to be one of a dozen or more part-time medical directors to oversee quality of care, screen for medical disorders mimicking psychiatric disorders, help train the counselors to write better notes (many were foreigners with good counseling skills but a little difficulty with English writing), advise the CEO on best medical practices and standard of care, and provide physician services to patients needing medications.
I or my staff while I was in hospital gave the CEO my Medicaid provider number and other necessary documents so that the company’s billing agent Louise Moore of Data Medical Works could sign me up with Medicaid as a provider for the group so that they could bill for my services when I began to work, if I recovered, in 2001.
Ms. Moore I never met at the time was a sweet lady who is ignorant of a lot of things. She held herself out to be a expert at medical billing and she signed a contract with the CEO in early 2000 to set the group up legally to bill Medicaid. Nothing she did was actually proper, but it was not her own fault. She failed to tell the CEO he would be paid more if he had his group certified as a community mental health center. She was totally ignorant of the concept of community mental health centers (or the drug addiction and alcohol treatment centers - another center with its own enabling State Statue).
Under the Community Mental Health Service Act mental health groups that become certified bill Medicaid under the Center’s name and not under the doctor’s name. They also contract with the Illinois prisons, and/or DCFS (Illinois Child Welfare) or other agencies to provide comprehensive mental health services. They must have at least one medical director, but the director is an administrator and doesn’t have to see patients. Ph.D. psychologists or doctors or licensed mental health providers can supervise non-physician mental health service providers and bills can be sent in to Medicaid under the center’s name for all these services.
Ms. Moore ignorantly thinking (falsely) that her contract allowed her to sign the names of Right Frame of Mind employees on to any form signed my name in August and December 2000, without my or the CEO’s knowledge or consent, on a power of attorney form, an alternate payee form, and a blue cross/blue shielf electronic partner trading agreement form, which are all required to allow her to translate the patient encounter form to an electronic invoice and send it over the wire to BC/BS for adjudication, who then sends it to Medicaid, who then pays abut 30-40 cents on the dollar to the Alternate Payee (in this case RFOM).
Ms. Moore had spoken to the Medicaid Provider Service Unit about how to register the non-physician providers to bill Medicaid. She was told that non-physicians cannot bill Medicaid, was NOT told that a better way to bill was as a community mental health center or how to sign the group up as a community mental health center, and told that all bills (invoices) had to have a doctor’s name as the provider.
Then Ms. Moore, without my or the CEO’s knowledge changed the provider name in preparing invoices from Itadel Shalabi’s and Nareman Taha’s fraudulent patient encounter forms to my name so she could bill under my Medicaid Provider Number. I don’t believe that Ms. Moore had ANY knowledge of the fraudulent nature of the Patient Encounter Forms made by these two women.
Therefore the ghost billing charge is a result of ID Theft, resulting from both fraud by these two women and a comedy of errors by incompetent people advising Ms. Moore in the Medicaid Provider Service Unit, as well as her own blundering ignorance. I am totally innocent having not participated in any way in generating these bills or in receiving or using the money paid for them by Medicaid.
Ms Moore unfortunately is also guilty of mass fraud in all the work she has done in the past decade or more. It is illegal for an insurance biller to bill Medicaid based on a contract where they are paid by the percentage of funds received form Medicaid by the provider. Ms. Moore charged around 8% of all billings. This is illegal and considered fraud as it ties the billers service, which has nothing to do with the medical care provided, with the doctor’s service. Therefore, if she billed for a $100,000 procedure by a heart surgeon she would be paid $8,000 for sending in one bill, while when a family doctor bills $100, she would be paid $8. Providers of services to doctors are NOT ALLOWED to tie their services to the income from the actual medical provider. She MUST BILL ONLY by the piece of work such as $8 per bill. However, she has not been indicted for Medicaid Fraud and has not been sued by RFOM for Fraud in holding herself out to be an expert on billing when she was not.
The second aspect of the charge is substitute billing. I signed a Power of Attorney Form and Alternate Payee Agreement in August 2001. I was informed by the CEO sometime in late 2001 or early 2002 that the group was told by Ms. Moore that the counselors’ and psychologists’ services had to be billed under a doctor’s name so that bills on patients I had seen, but for dates of service when they were seen by a non-physician were being billed under my name. I had assumed that the billing agent was competent and doing the billing properly. I had assumed that substitute billing for employees services in mental health care was as legal as billing Medicaid for my nurse giving a patient a vaccine. I had no idea at the time that anyone considered substitute billing illegal. I had no knowledge that Ms. Moore had actually sent in tens of thousands of dollars worth of bills under my name before August 1, 2001 based on documents she forged and the fraudulent patient encounter forms from the above two women. Therefore, I told the CEO that was fine. I was not involved in billing or administration of the group except to fill out patient encounter forms when I saw a patient. I had a good faith belief that all was well.
I had also had an agreement that being part-time the business would limit my patient panel to 200 patients as I did not feel that part-time doctors should supervise the care of any more patients than this number.
Since Judge Alonso has unconstitutionally and illegally ruled that substitute billing is illegal I will be found guilty and likely sentence to prison for 4-15 years, as well as forever lose my medical license and reputation, along with my livelihood, future, friends, health as medical care is inadequate in prison and I am disabled with several serious medical disorders, and will to live. I have informed the U.S. Attorney, FBI, at the time Senator Obama, Senator Durbin, and now Senator Burris along with a lot of Congressmen and other Sentators and State legislators. I am receiving no assistance to solve this problem and restore mental health care in Illinois to those on Medicaid.
In late 2001 Ms. Lovett, Ms. Collins and others from the Office of Inspector General Medicaid contacted the RFOM and claimed that they needed to review some charts as a “standard review of a new practice to help us comply with the rules”. We completely complied and Ms. Lovett came out in 2001. She told the CEO the charts were well done and she would give us a report in 90 days. The CEO was actually very happy about this review because he wanted to make sure that our group practiced with the highest quality and had the best quality charting in the business. They never gave us a report or any feedback and their only response was to initiate a felony prosecution which culminated in the indictment of selectively me (and not one other of the dozen or so medical directors doing the same job - perhaps because only the CEO and I were whistle blowers about Illinois Governement Corruption and mistreatment of children in foster care and on Medicaid by the State) and the CEO.
After a number of months with NO feedback and strange comments from the Illinois State Police Medicaid Fraud Unit (part of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office), where the CEO had gone to inform them that he was concerned abut the integrity of our medical records because he had fired Itadel Shalabi and Nareman Taha for other administrative misconduct and inappropriate behavior with patients and they stole a hundred or so medical records (eventually returning parts of them) I began my own investigation of the rules of Medicaid. The State Police have not arrested them yet.
The CEO, I had learned over about a year was much more naive than I thought about running the business. I had assumed that he was qualified as an administrator and found out he was not. Finding out about the stolen charts and the lack of feedback from the OIG-Medicaid on this “routine review” concerned me. I was also concerned because in April 2002 the CEO told me that Ms. Collins at OIG-Medicaid had informed him to talk to Mr. Brown at Medicaid because there was a problem with the way our group was set up. Mr. Brown told the CEO that RFOM could not be a proper alternate payee under their rules and he apologized for misleading the CEO when the group was originally set up in 2000. He told the CEO that Medicaid could not continue to pay the group unless it was owned by the doctors. The group was the sole proprietorship of the CEO a master degreed psychologist. The CEO said OK, hired an attorney, and asked several of the doctors to be the officers of the group as it changed to corporate status. The corporation was set up so that the doctors would not actually profit from the corporation but were only paid by the hour for their work. The CEO was going to make a profit from managing the corporation. However, no profit was ever made as all the income went to overhead, particularly paying the counselors and doctors their salary and/or hourly rate. The CEO actually put in $100,000 of his own money to meet payroll before he closed the business as no viable financially. My total income from the group was about $5000 over all the time I worked there from 2001 to 2003. I always told the CEO to pay the other employees first and my work was only very limited and part-time.
Beginning in 2002, I researched the Federal and State Medicaid rules, policies, and laws so that I would be able to meet my fudiciary duty to participate in running the corporation at least from an advisory point of view. I discovered the following and this is why I told the CEO in mid 2002 and maintain this belief, that substitute billing is perfectly legal and actually REQUIRED by the Federal Medicaid Code as well as NOT PROHIBITED by Illiniois Statutes or Illinois Adminstrative Rules:
Federal and State Medicaid laws are extensive, complex, and immensely confusing. The State of Illinois is misusing them to indict doctors, psychologists, administrators of psychiatric and psychological practices for “Medicaid Fraud” when they are actually following federal law and providing needy services including counseling, drug treatment, suicide prevention, etc. Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Jim Ryan before her have targeted especially those groups run by whistle blowers, in order to falsely claim they are tough on fraud, to prevent Illinois from paying the bill for mental health services for the poor and needy on Medicaid, and reduce the bottom line.
A claim of “tough on fraud” will help AG Lisa Madigan win election as Governor. Failure to provide mental health care including drug addiction and alcoholism treatment leads to increased crime as drug addicts, alcoholics, and those that are so out of touch and mentally ill find alternatives to legitimate work to feed their habits or survive. Failure to provide adequate mental health care at the front end leads to much higher costs in the long run.
Code of Federal Regulations 42 CFR 414.34 states:“Payment for services and supplies incident to a physician’s service”“(b) Services of non[-]physicians that are incident to a physician’s service. Services of non physicians that are covered as incident to a physician’s service are paid as if the physician had personally furnished the service. “
United States Code42 U.S.C. § 1396d(a)(5)(A)requires reimbursement for “physicians’ services furnished by a physician.”
Code of Federal Regulations 42 C.F.R. § 440.50The HHS rule implementing the Medicaid Act defines “physician services” to include services provided:“(a) within the scope of practice of medicine or osteopathy as defined by State law; and(b) by or under the personal supervision of an individual licensed under State law to practice medicine or osteopathy.”
United States Code42 U.S.C. §1396a(a)(32)(C)Congress further authorized substitute billing under Medicaid for services furnished:“by, or incident to the services” of another physician
Federal Regulation66 Fed. Reg. 55268HHS makes clear in its preamble to this rule that it does not restrict the type of auxiliary personnel who may perform a given “incident to” service: “We deliberately used the term any individual so that the physician (or other practitioner), under his or her discretion and license, may use the service of anyone ranging from another physician to a medical assistant.”
Code of Federal Regulations42 CFR 411.15“Particular services exclude from coverage” specifically states that:“(m) (3) Exceptions. The following services are not excluded from coverage:…•(iii) Nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist services……•(v) Qualified psychologist services,”
FEDERAL PREEMPTION SUSTAINED BY FEDERAL 2ND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEAL•A Federal suit for a psychiatrist against the New York Medicaid Program based on its refusal to approve Medicaid was agreed to for reimbursement for services provided by his employees under his supervision. Yapalater v. Bates, 494 F. Supp. 1349 (S.D.N.Y. 1980), aff’d, 644 F.2d 131 (2d Cir. 1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 908, 102 S. Ct. 1255 (1982).•The court determined that the federal Medicaid rule at 42 C.F.R. §440.50 defining “physician services” unquestionably included supervisees other than the physician, just as the same rule must apply here to vacate Plaintiffs’ indictments. Id. at 1363-64.
State Medicaid must Provide Services 42 U.S.C. 1396a(a)30(A)•Federal Code clearly mandates that State Medicaid plans must provide services to recipients of Medicaid and payment to their service providers equivalent to care and services provided to the general population by private insurers•Private insurance pays for psychiatric services provided by counselors and psychologists•RFOM CEO and other employees, besides the physicians were licensed counselors, nurses, psychological therapist, or social workers, per CEO
42 U.S.C. 1396a(a)30(A)“A State plan for medical assistance must –Provide such methods and procedures relating to the utilization of, and the payment for, care and services available under the plan . . . to assure that payments are … sufficient to enlist enough providers so that care and services are available under the plan … at least to the extent that such care and services are available to the general population in the geographic area“,
Ambiguous State Laws Must be Interpreted to Conform to Fed Law•The Federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has also construed ambiguous state regulations to conform to federal Medicaid requirements,•an approach worth revisiting here with respect to Sections 140.411 and 140.413 of the Illinois Administrative Code.•See Evanston Hosp. v. Hauck 1 F.3d 540 (7th Cir.1993), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1091 (1994).
I (SHELTON) CONTINUES HER OWN INVESTIGATION OF BILLING PRACTICES – 2002-2005•Shelton discovers that Physician Medicaid Manual has inconsistencies, in one place stating bills for employees billed under doctor’s name, and in another place stating that no psychiatric services can be billed for non-physicians, yet in another place stating that non-physicians may provide psychiatric services and Medicaid may be billed. She also discovered the Illinois Community Mental Health Center Code.
Illinois Administrative Code (IAC)89 IAC 140.12“Services Not Covered by Physician”DOES NOT MENTION psychiatric services by non-physicians
Illinois Administrative Code89 IAC 140.400(a)“Payment to Practitioners”“2) A practitioner may bill only for services he or she personally provides or which are provided under his or her direct supervision in his or her office by his or her staff.”
Illinois Administrative Code89 IAC 140.411“Covered Services by Physicians”“The Department shall pay physicians for the provision of services not otherwise excluded which are:. . .c) Provided by the physician or by a member of the physician’s staff under the physician’s direct supervision
Illinois Administrative Code89 IAC 140.413“Limitations on Physician Services”that “limitations” on physician’s services include that psychiatric services will be paid for if they are “. . . provided by a physician . . .” [It does not exclude non-physician services and it is a reasonable inference to conclude the definition of "physician" include the services of non-physician employees, under the doctor's supervision as defined in 89 IAC 140.400 & 411]
How does this negate previous definition of “physician services” which include incident services by his employees?
UNCONSTITUTIONAL STATE CLAIMState falsely claims use of word “physician” in 89 IAC 140.413 negates definition of“physician services”, which includes incident services by physician’s employees as defined in 89 IAC 140.400(a), 89 IAC 140.411
State falsely claims that federal law does not apply and statutory construction rules don’t applyJudge Alonso previously illegally ruled that the Federal Medicaid Code does not apply in this case despite the fact the Illinois Medicaid is a joint federal/state program partially funded by the Federal Medicaid Code!
IAC TOO VAGUE•Criminal Laws are invalid if too vague to understand (”void for vagueness doctrine”)•Illinois Administrative Code too vague in sections:89 IAC 140.12,89 IAC 140.400,89 IAC 140.411, and89 IAC 140.413Illinois Administrative Code•Why should 89 IAC 140.413 have more weight than 89 IAC 140.12?•Why should the definitions of physician services in and 140.411 not apply to the term “physician” in 89 IAC 140.413?
STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION RULES REQUIRE (Regarding interpretation of conflictin State Statutes)Specific Controls over General•89 IAC 140.400 & 89 IAC 140.411more specific “physician services” includes non-physician employee services•89 IAC 140.413 general word “physician” with no definition of what services this includes cannot by exclusion negate previous more specific definition of services provided by physician
Federal Law Rules42 CFR 414.34Services by Physician’s staff are billed as IF the Physician Performed the Services Himself
If State and Federal Law conflicts, Federal Law RulesDue to the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution
FEDERAL LAW REQUIRES PAYMENT FOR EPSDT SERVICES•The Federal Medicaid Code requires that State Medicaid programs pay for periodic mental health screening and treatment of any defects in mental health for children under 21:• 42 USC 1396d “Definitions For purposes of this chapter• (r) Early and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment services••The term ‘early and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment services’ means the following items and services:• (1) Screening services –• (A) which are provided –•(ii) at such other intervals, indicated as medically necessary, to determine the existence of certain physical and mental illnesses or conditions;• . . .•(5) Such other necessary health care, diagnostic services, treatment, and other measures described in subsection (a) of this section to correct or ameliorate defects and physical and mental illnesses and conditions discovered by the screening services, whether or not such services are covered under the State plan.”
STATE LAW REQUIRES PAYMENT FOR EPSDT SERVICES•89 IAC 140.485 states:•“Healthy Kids Program•Program Description–The Healthy Kids Program is the Early and Periodic Screening Diagnostic and Treatment Program [EPSDT] mandated by the Social Security Act (see 42 U.S.C. 1396a(43), 1396d(4)(B)(Supp. 1987)). The goals of the program are to:•Improve the health status of Medicaid-eligible children ages birth through 20 years through the provision of preventive medical care and early diagnosis and treatment of conditions threatening the child’s health•…• Treatment. The Department shall pay for necessary medical care (see Section 140.2), diagnostic services [i.e. psychological testing], treatment or other measures medically necessary … to correct or ameliorate defects, physical or mental illnesses….”,•The Illinois Public Aid Code [AKA Medicaid Act], 305 ILCS 5/19(f) requires that EPSDT screening and mental health treatment be provided to children in the Medicaid program:•“5/19. Healthy Kids Program•(f) Covered Medical Services. The Illinois Department shall provide coverage for all necessary health care, diagnostic services, treatment and other measures to correct or ameliorate defects, physical and mental illnesses, and conditions whether discovered by screening services or not for all children eligible for Medical Assistance under Article V of this Code.”
Dr Shelton was a Medicaid Registered EPSTD Provider
Therefore ANY REASONABLE person would conclude that the law permits substitute billing for mental health services whether it be another physician covering for the doctor, or a non-physician supervised by the doctor or her colleagues. If you don’t agree than the void for vagueness doctrine should clearly negate and prevent any criminal charges for substitute billing.
God Help Me! I am innocent and destroyed. This is my reward for devoting my life to service particularly of the poor and needy. If you want to help, contact the Illinois Reform Committee and flood them with letters. Contact the U.S. Attorney and FBI and flood them with letters. Contact your legislators and Congressmen and flood them with letters. Come to the trial on February 17, 2009 which will last two weeks and fill the gallery so that the judge knows your opinion. Contact the press. Donate to my legal fund anything possible. I need tens of thousands of dollars. Shelton Legal Fund, C/O Albukerk & Associates, 3025 W. 26th St. 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL 60623. Thank you if you help.
Martin Luther King Jrs. birthday is January 19. He has been a driving force in my life. Most people think his “I have a dream” speech is his best, and it certainly is the most famous.
http://www.mlkonline.net/dream.html
But, I am most profoundly moved and inspired by the last speech he made on the night of April 3, 1968. In this speech he expresses the POWER of SELFLESSNESS and NON-VIOLENCE.
See: http://www.mlkonline.net/promised.html
“For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory. . . .
But either we go up together, or we go down together. . . .
But I’m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It’s possible that these men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, “I can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable.” It’s a winding, meandering road. It’s really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you’re about 2200 feet below sea level. That’s a dangerous road. In the day of Jesus it came to be known as the “Bloody Pass.” And you know, it’s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it’s possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”.
That’s the question before you tonight. Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?” The question is not, “If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” “If I do no stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” That’s the question.
Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.
You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, “Are you Martin Luther King?”
And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that’s punctured, you drown in your own blood–that’s the end of you.
It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I’ve forgotten what those telegrams said. I’d received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I’ve forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I’ll never forget it. It said simply, “Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the Whites Plains High School.” She said, “While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.”
And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn’t sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can’t ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I’m so happy that I didn’t sneeze.
….
And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say that threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
My own grandfather was a Baptist minister, Rev. William Tatter, and he was of like mind to the Rev. King. I grew up emotionally and philosophically by the words of Rev. King and my grandfather and from those days committed my very soul to the concepts of selflessness, non-violence, unity, and sacrifice for others are ALWAYS more important than self. I hope you join me in this commitment that is also so well embodied in our founding father’s statement in the Declaration of Independence: “[W]e mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.“
For the Declaration of Independence see:
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm
I renew the commitment of our founding fathers and I renew my acceptance of the guidance of Rev. King and my grandfather today and hope you will join me.
Health Care reform needs creative thinking. Policies and procedures of the past just won’t do. We can’t just copy Canadian health care systems. Nor should we just leave everything to the “free” market. Free market theory ASSUMES one is ABLE TO make a choice for the most competitive service provider.
First we should analyze what is the meaning of health care. In America we have fire and police departments, public road maintenance, and other public services where the employees provide services to the captive public for a salary. How well they do their work or how much work they do is not tied to their salary. When a burglar confronts you with a gun, or there is a fire at your house, there is no ability for the person in this “captive” market to shop around. I believe that Americans think that fire and police protection, garbage collection, etc are a right.
These are not areas where there are super exorbitant profits for those that supply the fire engines, police cars, and garbage trucks or who man the fire engines, garbage trucks, etc. Competition for services and supplies is somewhat limited. Therefore, the principles of the free market capitalist system just doesn’t work well.
The questions is do Americans now believe that health care is a right and not a privilege as I do? I don’t believe that exotic and futile health care however, is a right. Half our health care dollars (my estimate which may not be completely correct) are spent on futile health care at the end of life or the beginning of life. We need clear guidelines as to when a person at public expense will be placed under hospice care and taken out of the ICU and guidelines for other such end of life decisions. We cannot give every possible treatment to stretch out misery and suffering to the very last moment, nor keep brain dead people “alive” on ventilators at public expense instead of using that money to help those that can be saved!
If one believes it is a right then WHY do we allow pharmaceutical companies, high-tech health equipment and supplies manufacterors and suppliers the right to set exorbitant high fees without competition in a captive market? Executives of health insurance companies and HMOs, executives of “not-for-profit” hospitals, physicians who perform more procedures than others (heart surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, opthalmologists, etc.) bill exotic fees and make hugely outrageous incomes in the millions to tens of millions of dollars (in comparison to the President of the United States - $400,000, the average family practitioner or pediatrician $150,000, or the executive of other non-profit agencies) when the patients are a captive market who have only limited abilites to shop around. How can a person shop around when they are being taken to a hospital by ambulance for a heart attack and need bypass surgery? A captive market is NOT a free market. The Milton Friedman model does NOT work with a captive market where people obtain life-saving and essential services. When only one company makes a PET scanner, how can a hospital shop around for competitive bids?
Pharmaceutical companies spend an estimated 50% of their expenditures on advertising. They convince doctors to prescribe marginally “better” drugs at great cost when the doctors could prescribe cheaper and just as effective medications. Yet we allow Medicaid and prisons medical facilities (who provide a LOT of health care in the US) to limit drugs in a ridiculously strict fashion that amounts to medical neglect. The disparities are astonishing in terms of availability of appropriate drugs and the use of unnecessary drugs.
We have 200 times (my estimate) the number of employees as countries with national health plans in the health care/industrial complex just to push around invoices for medical care and collect money from patients who can’t pay. Hospitals charge 3 Xs reasonable fees to make up for the lack of payment from those who cannot afford to pay and are brought to their hospitals in dire straights unable to choose a cheaper facility.
Employers are expected to pay for medical care and our economy is driven into the ground by this when companies cannot compete due to this “benefit” package.
Lets be reasonable. We need the following and we need creative ways of obtaining it and a national dialogue about how much medical care is a right and how much profit should be allowed to be taken out by greedy people (executives, a minority of doctors, high tech product suppliers and manufacterers, pharmaceutical company executives and stockholders).
1 - remove health care from ties with employers so when you lose your job you dont’ lose your health insurance and to prevent employers from pushing out employees with chronic health conditions that make the companies insurance too costly,
2 - consider excess gradated taxes on advertising of drugs and high tech products to discourage inappropriate use of new expensive drugs, while increasing grants to pharmaceutical companies and research scientists to develop new drugs,
3 - consider either putting doctors and health care executives on a salary, a partial salary, or imposing a steeply progressive excess income tax (say 50% tax on portions of income over $400,000) or some creative variation of this, coupled with free education for physicians and nurses, which would be similar to free education for firemen - this will produce huge savings - why should the CEO of an HMO going out of business get $40 million in a golden parachute as the company goes under - these dollars should be used for health care and NOT TO ENRICH EXECUTIVES OF PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES, HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES AND HIGH-TECH MEDICAL EQUIPMENT COMPANIES, AND DOCTORS,
4 - regional health care plans instead of employer based plans, which would have to compete against each other,
5 - subsidies or tax benefits for companies that are very small and employ a lot of low paid workers, for the disabled, and the poor to help them pay any premiums,
6 - reduce paper and standardize electronic medical records so there is inexpensive access to information, so that disasters don’t wipe out records, so that services are not duplicated when results are lost, and so that erros are reduced - this will produce huge cost savings that can be used to fund the system instead of increasing taxes,
7 - a VA like health care system that people can choose instead of the private insurance companies,
8- don’t leave the decisions only to the legislators, the AMA, the powerful, and the elite, let those of us on the front line have a say - by being in every working group and on every board concerning any aspect of health care.
Truth commissions worked in South Africa to encourage confession, resolve mysteries, increase transparency, resolve conflicts, decrease corruption, reduce bias and discrimination, and allowed the country to get beyond conflict, to forgive, to accept the past, and to move on in a more honest, united and open manner.
Would this not work in the United States. We should begin a pilot project run by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in C[r]ook County.
"Our veterans in chronic pain are thrown narcotics in high doses making them nonfunctional addicts instead of treating pain properly with multiple modalities (TENS units, therapy, muscle relaxants, meditation). Will you help them reclaim their lives?"
"Brain surgeons go to medical school for 4 years then do internships and residencies to learn this skill for another 7 years. I don't want a family doc doing brain surgery. Shouldn't judges be required more education than 3 years of law school?"
"Corrupt politicians and police illegally use fraudulent charges of disorderly conduct, trespass, resisting arrest, etc., as retaliatory tools against whistle blowers and dissidents. Will you hold Congressional hearings on this and stop this practice?"
"Judges are arrogant, incompetent, corrupt, and they routinely deny civil rights - right to self-representation, right to access courts, introduce evidence, etc. They abuse orders for fitness exams. Will you hold hearings and change this?"
"Excess incarceration is killing our economy. Will you lead the battle to replace incarceration with restorative justice for non-violent offenses. Skilling should be working and paying 99.9% of his salary to those he harmed!"
"In Illinois Atty Gen Lisa Madigan, several Governors, and their corrupt accomplices fraudulently deny mental health care to those on Medicaid and wrongfully prosecute health care providers who are trying to provide this service. Will you investigate?"
It is so important to act and not just talk. We live in a totalitarian police state because people have NOT spoken up and acted. Are you willing to help me write a white paper saying what is wrong with the prison system and what we think should be done?
I know of the lawsuit by Everett Hadix against the Michigan prison system for extreme systemic medical neglect and abuse causing for example the death of TH from dehydration while in restraints, or of another prisoner for failure to provide thyroid medication, and others from medical neglect, torture, and abuse. We have a similar situation in Illinois but no lawsuits yet. Read the US Atty report - http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2008/pr0717_01a.pdf.
There is also the gross case of death by ammonia inhalant of a Florida teen in a boot camp where the guards and nurse forced an ammonia inhalant on this prisoner because he wasn't running fast enough. He went into laryngospasm and died. The nurse and guards were tried for murder and acquitted!! But by the grace of God go I !!! I have been wrongfully incarcerated, suffered asthma attacks and ammonia inhalants forced on me until I passed out in laryngospasm because they said I was "faking" and "malingering" and they had to "deal with my dramatics"!! I thought I was going to die several times.
I also was tied down and illegally shot up with psychotropic drugs to shut me up so I wouldn't ask for grievance forms, paper and pen to access the courts, or tell other prisoners their writes. This is while I was severely dehydrated on a dry hunger strike and despite the fact I go into very severe flashbacks from being tied down and suffocated in the past.
I have been viciously beaten by guards and black and blue all over in retaliation for my complaints or resisting a psychotropic drug, un-needed and given illegally. Again these illegal acts were done in retaliation for my complaints and civil rights activities!!
My goal is nothing short of congressional hearings on these topics. This is much worse than Abu Ghraib and is standard practice in US prisons and jails. It is so barbaric and cruel it makes me puke and I constantly suffer from PTSD. I cry and shake when even thinking about this stuff as I am doing now while writing this.
We need to raise a lot of funds so we can hire good attorneys to do class actions and lobby for congressional hearings. We need much more press attention. I have been trying to do this unsuccessfully. I am destitute now and fortunately have a relative who has taken me in.
We need an organization to fight this and a celebrity spokesman to help promote the cause.I would appreciate the guidance and assistance of this group in achieving these goals. Perhaps we can form a coalition with other mental health advocacy, disability advocacy, and prison reform groups, as well as with anti-torture groups.
Please contact me with ideas in this regard, tell me if you have the skills or resources to help, and if you are willing to volunteer in some regard.
Dr. Linda Lorincz Shelton
Casares has been a partial C2 quadriplegic for a long time. He only has minimal movement only in his right arm, and of course is confined to a wheelchair. Most of his movements are muscle spasms not under his control. Emotions increase the muscle spasms as they did on the date in question. Casares was sitting in the passenger seat of a car in an alley where he had gone with his brother to admire a car. One of his interests is in cars so he is taken to look at interesting cars owned by his friends.
The police were apparently suspecting that drug deals were done in that alley and suspected his brother. They pulled their guns and told everyone to get out of the car. When Casares did not get out, despite everyone yelling he was quadriplegic, Casares claims a female officer got in the driver’s seat, pulled her gun and pushed it at his thigh and said “you’re going to walk now.” This great stress induced a muscle spasm that slapped her in the face. Immediately after that the police dragged him out of the car and beat him. His face was severely contused and swollen. They beat him more harshly because he refused to walk.
Three police officers that testified at Casares’s criminal trial offer a different account. They claim that they never drew their guns during the altercation and accuse Casares of hitting a female cop when she asked him to exit his car.
Cesares was charged with resisting arrest and misdemeanor battery. He was convicted at a bench trial. Judge Brown apparently was impressed with Caseras’ muscles - he is well toned in the arms because of constant involuntary spasms. Caseras told the judge he had only limited movement of his right arm demonstrating that he could move it a little up and down. The judge was so incompetent and outrageously biased that he ignored the fact that Caseras is quadriplegic with mostly muscle spasms and limited movement and the likelihood that Caseras involuntarily slapped the officer in the face and convicted Caseras who was sentenced to probation. To say there is NO reasonable doubt is insane and unfair.
Civil rights organizations and disability rights groups should jump onto this case and aid Caseras. We should also consider racial bias and discrimination against Caseras because he is Hispanic. Judge Brown should be removed from the bench for this outrage. The case should be overturned on appeal and if it is not, then we truly live in a totalitarian police state where police can beat, abuse, harass, and kill people with impunity!
This is a case screaming for the intervention of the U.S. Attorney. To me this is felony violation of civil rights under color of law, excessive force, unlawful arrest, malicious prosecution, and racial discrimination.
His attorney handling the suit is Blake Horowitz, out of Chicago.
I offer the following during this Christmas Season in the hopes of inciting true love for our fellow man, rationality, and peace! This is a season when we should think carefully about compassion, love, forgiveness, and justice for all - the victims and the perpetrators. I don't wish to bring up bad things, but this is a time when the meaning of punishment and redemption have a very big historical context. Perhaps we can find some peace in contemplating the answers to the questions I pose, as well as the phrase which I treasure - United We Stand, Divided We Fall.
Happy Holidays! May the blessings of the season be with you and your families. May the New Year bring you joy, prosperity, and peace!
The above was the response of Gerry Spence to the following comment I placed on his blog:
What does the death penalty do except act as a method of revenge and fulfill a blood lust? Does publicizing executions promote compassion and justice? Does an execution help cure society of murders or reduce the murder rate? Is a civilized society more civilized by executing its citizens? Does an execution protect society from murder greater than a life sentence without parole? Is an execution reversible when new evidence proves innocence? Do I want to teach my son that the answer to anything is murder? I don’t think so.
There are some emotions that are harmful as well as useless. Revenge is one of them. When I am angry, I try to channel this anger into something productive. Even in murderers, I see something useful. I would like to channel the consequence of their despicable act into something good in society. Yes we must protect society from them and many could never be rehabilitated. BUT - are we forgetting that all human beings, no matter how loathsome have unique qualities and even the ability to contribute to society - even evil from behind prison walls may have value?
Could not the convicted murderer help design programs to address the problems that lead them to murder? Are they incapable of contributing anything to society from even behind secure prison walls? Do people not change? Do people not grow in understanding? Perhaps America is wrong about the death penalty and the rest of the civilized world that abolished it is right.
I hope I see some day the death penalty in the United States goes the way of being drawn and quartered in England. I would like it talked about as a barbaric ancient method of punishment not fit for the civilized world, which promoted violence instead of preventing it. I don’t want anger and revenge misused in this manner any more.
Communications is the new frontier. Newspapers are being converted from print to internet. Huge amounts of money are wasted through lack of standardization, redundancy, and difficulty in querying and finding data. We need to standardize not just electronic medical records, to prevent duplicating services and errors, but also utility bills, credit card bills, contracts, court records, prison and jail records, and any communications which are fundamental, frequent, and subject to privacy and security concerns.
Elderly and disabled persons often have difficulty in the area of communications. Changing the format of utility bills causes a problem. Difficult to read credit card bills causes chaos. Incomprehensible contracts are a disaster.
National security is highly dependent on communications - on the battle front, for homeland security, to prevent terrorist attacks, to prevent crime. However the privacy concerns are huge. Intelligence may sometimes compromise privacy. How do we balance these?
Information technology is poorly understood by most Americans. We need increased education in this area.
Mediation, debate, giving and following instructions, about almost anything are necessary skills in society. How can we increase our skills as a nation in this area?
Please give your conerns about what needs to do and why centralizing these concerns in one cabinet level position may be efficient and move us forward quicker or the opposite view.
Please consider a jobs program for organizations to design and implement programs to re-integrate, provide mental health care, provide drug abuse treatment, provide family therapy, and supervise ex-cons and to train and employ ex-cons. > 600,000 convicts are released every year and this is growing due to the failed policy of the last 30 years to be "tough on crime." What good does it do to squash prisoners like a bug, destroy their families, destroy their health, destroy their future career potential, and fail to provide even an iota of rehabilitation? Part of our economic problem is that we are destroying and wasting so much human potential. If we employed these people and the prisons guards and employees, as well as reduce the number of prisoners in half with alternative sentencing for non-violent criminals, drug abuse treatment, and mental health care - our workforce that pays taxes and contributes to society will grow at an astonishing rate (including ex-cons, ex - prison employees, and their families who were living on the dole) and our productivity will increase.
Please give your creative suggestions about how to achieve this. Think outside the box! Be inovative!
The following is a letter to the Director of the Chicago FBI Office. I am asking him to save a life. Please help me by ACTING. Write a letter to Mr. Grant and Asst. US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Write a letter to the press. The addresses are at the end of this post. Disseminate this information widely on every blog possible. This is a matter of life and death. This is a matter of preserving the Republic. In this terrible time in Illinois we need ANY help we can get. IF we could raise $200,000 we could pay the bail and get Dr. Hamilton out of jail and to a hospital if necessary. If we could raise $20,000 to $50,000 we could get her a good attorney. Help us wrench back our State of Illinois from the corrupt. Read the following link that gives you a brief idea what we are up against.
http://illinoiscorruption.blogspot.com/2008/10/criminal-scheme-of-il-attorney-general.html
HELP SAVE A LIFE, A TALENTED PERSON, HER CAREER, AND LET HER CONTINUE HER WORK TO HELP THE POOR, THE MENTALLY ILL, AND THE DISADVANTAGED. Talk is cheap. Please walk the walk and don’t just talk the talk. We are in desperate straits in Illinois. Gov. Blagojevic is the tip of the iceberg of corruption. He is merely a puppet. The real crooks are behind the scenes and spread out like an octopus with tentacles. Special Agent Robert Grant: Please discuss this with AUSA Patrick Fitzgerald. Please read this in detail. I am asking you to intervene to save a life of probably the most valuable witness against corruption in IL that you could have. I am writing to PLEAD WITH YOU to please meet with me and go to CCDOC and meet with Dr. Maisha Hamilton [Bennett]. This is to save her life and preserve a valuable witness for you to use against corruption. She has more knowledge about the Jacksons, Vrydoliak, Rev. Meeks, Stroger, and many African American politicians in IL than almost anyone!!!! Dr. Hamilton is a brilliant and talented person devoted to mental health care for the poor. She is a Harvard graduate. She is the first black Ph.D. psychologist in Illinois and graduated from the University of Chicago. She was until 2002 the Chief Mediator for the Postal Service. She was appointed Deputy Dir. of the Chicago Board of Health in charge of mental health clinics by Mayor Wahington. She is a law abiding citizen. She was the psychologist examining and treating the two boys, age 7 and 8, falsely accused in the Ryan Harris murder and is responsible in proving they could not have committed the crime. She was on the Board of Directors of Rainbow Push. I have attached her CV. Please look at it. When she took office a Daley operative came in and told her to just sit at her desk as a figure head and he would run the department. She kicked him out and has been the victim of retaliation for the last 20+ years!
Dr. Hamilton attempted to obtain a contract from Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Evans about 8-10 years ago to provide psychological services to the CCDOC. Judge Evans knew her through Rainbow Push. Dr. Hamilton knew many of the black politicians and officials very well. However Judge Evans said in order to have the multi-million dollar contract she had to pay the usual 10% kick-back into the political fund “Friends of Madigan.” As you should know by now, these funds are used to launder bribery and kick-back money and then the corrupt cabal of politicians use them to ensure re-election in their political campaigns and to ensure election of their “friends”.
Dr. Hamilton ALWAYS said NO THANKS – I won’t pay a kickback. Therefore, she did not get the contract. Dr. Markos is head of the forensic clinical services at the Cook Count Courts. He would not be there if he didn’t pay the kick-back.
Dr. Hamilton was fraudulently arrested and convicted of Medicaid vendor fraud (a state charge). I know absolutely she is innocent. She was convicted of having her company bill Medicaid for mental health services of her employees who were psychologists and counselors. They said that the Medical Director’s name was used as the provider. The issue is that the billing agent Louise Moore of Data Medical Works without Dr. Hamilton’s knowledge, and because Ms. Moore fraudulently holds herself out as an expert at setting up companies to bill Medicaid, and because the IL Medicaid provider unit told her to do so, wrongfully set up Dr. Hamilton’s company, Hamilton Wholistic Healthcare, to bill fee-for-service instead of as a licensed Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center (“ADTC”). ADTCs in IL can bill under the center’s name for services of employees who are not physicians! In addition her center was an inpatient treatment center and mostly billed for services to inpatients. She also billed legitimately for services to children of the patients who received counseling. She didn’t even know that Ms. Moore was billing under a medical director’s name, instead of billing under the center name, because the checks from Medicaid were made out to Hamilton Wholistic Healthcare.
Ms. Moore by the way bills fraudulently by percentage instead of by each itemized service. According to the rules, this is Medicaid fraud and you have been ignoring this for a decade or more. Ms. Moore is becoming very wealthy off of this fraud and off of fraudulently holding herself out as an expert at not only billing but also setting up companies to bill. Ms. Moore actually is just setting people up to be wrongfully indicted by the sham prosecutor Lisa Madigan – who under IL law has brought these charges against Dr. Hamilton without any jurisdiction! I would like to explain this to you in detail, but if you do not understand – and want to figure this out yourself please read – a fed habeas case – 08 C 6216 AND 08 C 4627.
Dr. Hamilton was fraudulently convicted and sent to County Jail for six months of a wrongful incarceration. They tried to kill her twice there – one time the officers told two deranged and violent inmates to shank her in the shower but she was saved by other inmates who warned her to stay away from the shower. During the 4 yr probation sentence following incarceration she fled to Virginia to her brothers house so she could file habeas petition with the US Supreme Court.
She also testified against IL S. Court and at the time IL Appellate court judge Ann Burke. Judge Burke is up to her ears in corruption in that her husband accepts $10,000 bribes to get people elected to judgeships. Judge Burke has lawless control over the higher courts.
Dr. Hamilton knows about this because her sister, Morgan Hamilton, is a Cook County Circuit Court Judge! Dr. Hamilton told me there was no way she would win an appeal in the IL Courts as they are corrupt and she testified against Judge Burke in the Baby T case where J. Burke illegally arranged to have guardianship of Baby T – Travis Oldelson. Judge Burke essentially kidnapped Baby T in order to have a black child she could parade on her Christmas cards to get the black vote! Isn’t that sick!!!! I would like to tell you how J. Burke accomplished this. I suggest you also talk to Baby T’s mother Tina.
Any ways, Dr. Hamilton is so convinced that the fed court system HAS to hear her when she has no possibility of justice in IL – because the cabal of corruption at their highest level needs to shut her up and discredit her because they know how much information she has, that she fled and filed documents in the US Supreme Court for habeas which of course were dismissed for failure to exhaust state remedies – per my understanding.
Dr. Hamilton is so INTENSELY FRIGHTENED of the justice system in IL and the cabal of corruption (consisting of her former “friends) – Judge Evans, Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, Danny Davis, Bobby Rush, Ms. Adams, Rev/Sen Meeks, etc that this has seemingly irrationally colored her decision to refuse to participate in a state appeal. Extreme fear and personal knowledge of the extent of the corruption actually make her decision rational. The State Appellate Defender wrote a very good appeal that should get her conviction overturned because of MANY gross civil rights violations and due process violations. However the appeal was thrown out because she was a fugitive. Up to now she has refused to write a petition to the IL Appellate Court to reinstate the appeal.
Anyways, the IL Atty Gen’s office FRAUDULENTLY CALLED the Washington DC Federal Marshall fugitive task force and told them a complete LIE. They said she was a major criminal who committed fraud and that her name was all over the papers and that if they didn’t pick her up immediately she would flee and they would lose her. They came into her brother’s house, breaking down the door, with guns up and arrested her. They were then furious when the IL Gov failed to send in a timely fashion a Governor’s warrant and the only charges pending against her were a probation violation and a warrant for perjury. Therefore, their arrest was ILLEGAL!!!
Then Dr. Hamilton, in her extreme fear, (I would testify that she called me and was adamant about her fear of being killed by corrupt officials in Chicago) jumped the $2000 bail imposed by the Virginia courts and fled to St. Louise, where she spent a year filing habeas petition with the federal court in St. Louis. However they also dismissed it for failure to exhaust state remedies. The IL Atty Gen then traced her to St. Louise where she was living “under the radar.”
She was arrested in St. Louise in April and extradicted to IL. She is now in CCDOC awaiting a trial on perjury (she testified in the Ryan Harris - two boys civil suit against the city that she was not convicted of making false statements – the Cook Co States Atty. then charged her with perjury for failing to state she had been convicted of Medicaid Vendor Fraud. I witnessed her testimony and she actually didn’t lie. She chose her words VERY carefully.
She is now at CCDOC. Sadly as she is a raw foods vegetarian she does not eat much and is starving away. I believe this may be severely damaging her health because as you know medical care is denied at CCDOC for all practical purposes. Starvation may lead to more compulsive thinking and behaviors, as well as increase their fear and frustration. She has self-studied law and is overly verbose and doesn’t understand that the rules are VERY rigid and she can’t get around corrupt IL courts by ignoring the rules that she must exhaust state remedies. I believe she actually has a case that she cannot get justice in the IL courts and that the Fed. Court should hear her habeas for that reason, but this is not being properly presented to them.
The judge in her case ordered a fitness exam. The problem is that the examiner is part of the cabal of corruption. He apparently has found her unfit – in my opinion this is impossible!!!! I actually examined Dr. Hamilton and filed a fitness exam report with the court a few years back. I know her well now and have reviewed her pleadings, CV, talked with people she worked with and her sister and wish I could see her now and evaluate her present physical condition, which I believe to be quite dire. I believe they may be using this to get rid of her and may obtain a fraudulent judgment to drug her out of her mind. She is estranged from her very ill sister Judge Hamilton and has no one to help her but me, a Chicago Police Homicide Detective who can verify that everything I am saying is true and a few friends. My hands are tied in ways you are well aware of!!! I can’t help her right now but you can. Please do so for your benefit, to protect a witness. Perhaps you can put her in a witness protection program after you verify everything.
Dr. Hamilton was treating a person in the trucking department of the City of Chicago, - you know his name. He has obsessive compulsive disorder. He became director of the dept under the Washington administration and then was demoted under the Daley administration so their corrupt allies could take the job. This man’s condition caused him to zerox papers from that office for the past 20+ years and bring the copies to his house. He has 100s of papers including a document on Mayor Daley’s letterhead made out to one of the truckers who admitted paying a bribe stating that the bribe should be paid to the fund “friends of Madigan.” Why are you ignoring this?
I believe she is in grave danger and may die or have permanent damage from inappropriately prescribed drugs if she is not rescued.
PLEASE FOR GOD’S SAKE – PROTECT ONE OF THE BEST WITNESSES YOU HAVE AGAINST THE CABAL OF CORRUPTION – FIND A WAY TO TRANSFER HER TO THE FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION, PRESERVE HER HEALTH, AND INTERVIEW HER!!! PLEASE PLEASE – FOR GOD’S SAKE – DON’T THROW AWAY LIKE A PIECE OF GARBAGE ONE OF THE BEST WITNESSES YOU ARE IGNORING. SHE WAS A TARGET OF VRYDOLIAK AND BURKE!!! She knows the inner workings of Rainbow Push and every Department in Illinois. She personally for the last 20+ years knows what has been going on!!!!
What is wrong with you!!!!
Linda Lorincz Shelton, Ph.D., M.D.
Special Agent Robert GrantDirector FBI Chicago2111 West Roosevelt Road Chicago, IL 60608-1128(312) 421-6700
Assistant US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, Office of United States Attorney, 219 S. Dearborn, Fifth FloorChicago, IL 60604
Anita Alvarez, Cook County States Attorney, 50 W. Washington, Room 500, Chicago, IL 60602
Judge Mary Brosnahan – (regarding perjury case), Criminal Court Building Room 303, 2600 S. California Ave, Chicago, IL 60608
Judge Thomas Gainer – (regarding fitness and Fraud Conviction), Criminal Court Building Room 303, 2600 S. California Ave., Chicago, IL 60608
I don’t know the numbers or addresses of the press – please contact them, and please send me any contact information that you feel I might find useful.
Please also send me names and contact information for any activists, ministers, politicians, or celebrities that you feel may be willing to join this cause.
If you know any psychologists or psychiatrist willing to donate their services to examine Dr. Hamilton for the defense please contact me.
If you wish to donate funds, please contact me. I am trying to set up a fund to pay for her defense. I have an attorney who will take the case if he is paid. I cannot afford to pay him.
