HealthSouth, Lemak, Andrews To Pay $14.9 Million in Fraud Claims
UPDATE: More information here. The bulk of the payment ($14.2 million) will come from HealthSouth; Andrews will pay $450,000 and Lemak $250,000. Sounds like the doctors were relatively small spuds in the potato field — and HealthSouth was successful in blaming the whole thing on a “previous administration”.
The U.S. attorney’s office announced this afternoon that HealthSouth Corp. and two doctors have agreed to pay the federal government $14.9 million to settle health fraud claims.
U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said the settlement stems from allegations that the company submitted false claims to the government and paid illegal kickbacks to doctors who referred patients for care in some of its hospitals. Martin identified the doctors as orthopedic surgeons, James Andrews and Lawrence Lemak.
Many years ago, I was part of a team working on a strategic plan to turn then-South Highlands Hospital (which later became HealthSouth) into the primary care provider for the Birmingham area. In the midst of that process, Larry Lemak abruptly reversed course and hired James Andrews away from the Hughston Orthopedic Clinic to start a gold-plated sports medicine practice. With a gold-plated contract, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. It was fun to backtrack and write an after-the-fact business plan justifying that decision.
I don’t know about y’all, but $14.9 million sounds like pretty damn substantial fraud. So, Alice, how come you didn’t try to put them in prison? Did losing the Scrushy case give you cold feet? Or — and I’m just speculating here — could they be…Republicans? Well, maybe one of them is. But I’m sure that had nothing to do with it.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Lawrence Lemak and James Andrews had a relationship and a goal/dream that far preceded any South Highlands plan for expansion. It was unfortunate that the ability to create what they had been discussing for MANY YEARS prior to any South Highlands plan for expansion came to fruition at the time it did. As the saying goes, in life everyone has “several pans in the fire” as the great majority of times, things don’t pan out (no pun intended) as we would like.
Their mission which was to create a sports medicine center that could deliver the latest, cutting edge and most effective treatment for athletes IRRESPECTIVE of their athletic or financial ability and this was absolutely accomplished. Because of their god given talent as surgeons, physicians and people, they were able to create an elite Sports Medicine Center. One that cared not only for the Professional athlete (less than 5% of patients), but mostly for recreational and elementary/high school athletes many of which had little or no funds and would have otherwise not been able to receive any medical care at all. In addition to their small percentage of professional athletes their “gold plated sports medicine practice” was responsible for the care of most all high school athletes, many with no insurance or funds from the most rural areas of Alabama. The service that they provided for the Alabama community, particularly to those without any means would have never been possible without these two pioneers. It would be impossible for you to even quantify the amount of charity work they have done.
With little or no compensation, Larry Lemak was single handedly responsible for bringing the Olympics (Soccer) to Birmingham in 1996 which brought about a significant revitalization to what most visitors, including myself, thought was a less than vibrant city at the time. Both Dr. Andrews and Lemak have spent most of their Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and many Sundays during football season away from their families for no pay, caring for athletes and their families. Research, hosting conferences and training fellows have taken up the rest of their time. One can see how the business of the medicine they were practicing was taken care of by “business people” and not themselves. If you took into consideration the charity work they have done for the community, at minimum wage they would still be owed a very significant amount of money.
You have focused with great bias on a very small portion of the whole picture. This would be considered the classic, “it’s all about me” attitude. Your comments above clearly exhibit your ignorance on this subject and only highlight an obvious grudge and bitterness that you have been holding inside you for many years. I would strongly suggest you seek professional help so you can let this go.
Sincerely,
An impartial observer with no grudge to hold.
February 1st, 2008 at 7:42 am
“An impartial observer with no grudge to hold.”
Uh huh. That’s why you took time to find and rebut a post on an obscure blog. Thanks for the “impartial” diagnosis, Dr. Fernandez. Now you can get back to your life.