Thread: Doctor accused of cancer fraud could be deported

Doctor accused of cancer fraud could be deported

Posted: Aug 08, 2013 11:06 AM PDT

• Doctor accused of raking in $35 million in fraudulent cancer care
  
  DETROIT (AP) - Federal prosecutors say a suburban Detroit doctor accused of giving unnecessary treatments for cancer could be kicked out of the country if convicted of fraud.
  
  The government made the disclosure in a court filing Thursday as it tried to persuade a judge to keep Dr. Farid Fata in jail until trial. He's charged with deliberately misdiagnosing patients with cancer and ordering chemotherapy for others who didn't need it.
  
  The government says Fata's goal was to bill Medicare for millions of dollars.
  
  Fata became a naturalized citizen in 2009. The government says he could lose that status and be deported if he's convicted, especially if investigators learn that crimes were committed before 2009.
  
  Defense attorney Christopher Andreoff says Fata won't flee to his native Lebanon and should be granted bail.
  
  The judge decided Fata will be released on bond.
  
  
  http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/23...#ixzz2bPyYmSl2

August 7, 2013, - 8:58 am
Farid Fata: Lebanese Cancer Doc Defrauded Medicare, Told Patients w No Cancer They Had it, Gave ‘Em Chemo; Used Foreign Alien Muslim Docs w No License

By Debbie Schlussel

Over the years, I’ve noted that a significant percentage of doctors and other healthcare professionals who commit healthcare fraud are Muslims, Arabs, or both. This is true not just in Michigan–where Arabs and Muslims are each, at most, two percent of the population–but also in other states with lower Muslim and Arab populations.



Yesterday, Middle Eastern Detroit-area cancer doctor, Farid Fata, MD, was arrested by FBI agents, and his palatial home and several offices were raided. Fata, a renowned oncologist and a graduate of Lebanese University, amassed multi-millions by defrauding Medicare and telling patients who did not have cancer that they did, so that he could give them poisonous, fatal chemotherapy and fraudulently bill Medicare for it. He defrauded the government to the tune of over $35 million dollars. Fata also gave chemo to cancer patients who were at the end stages of life, where chemo would not help them and only made their last days more miserable. But, hey, they’re just “worthless” infidels, and he needed to bill the government, so he could add to those millions and maintain his mansion in ritzy Oakland Township. Read the Federal Criminal Complaint unsealed yesterday against Dr. Fata.

Watch This Shocking Video Report about Dr. Frankenstein Fata, an Utter Monster . . .
See video at link.

According to the complaint, Fata employed hundreds of foreign doctors–most of them Muslims and Arabs–and did not even know if they were licensed to practice medicine. He had those foreign doctors administer the lethal chemotherapy to hundreds of patients per day who did not need it. Many of those foreign doctors are probably not even in the United States legally. (More of those Paul Ryan and Marco Boob-io want to get “out of the shadows” with instant amnesty citizenship. Fabulous!) Some of the surviving family members of Dr. Fata’s patients believe he murdered them, and they are probably right. If you don’t have cancer, and you are given chemo, it’s poisonous and can be fatal. Fata’s had thousands of patients through the many offices of his Michigan Hematology Oncology P.C.

company, which employed mostly Muslim and Arab doctors even among those who are licensed to practice medicine here.

Among the things specifically cited by FBI Special Agent Brian Fairweather in his affidavit in the complaint:

Specifically, Dr. Fata has directed the following activities:

a. Administration of unnecessary chemotherapy in patients in remission

b. Deliberate misdiagnosis of patients as having cancer to justify unnecessary cancer treatment

c. Administration of chemotherapy to end-of-life patients who will not benefit from the treatment

d. Deliberate misdiagnosis of patients without cancer to justify expensive testing

e. Fabrication of other diagnoses such as anemia and fatigue to justify unnecessary hematology treatments

f. Distribution of controlled substances to patients without medical necessity. . . .

He employed three foreign doctors who were not licensed in the United States to examine the patients and provide an initial diagnosis. . . .

EE-1 stated that foreign doctors “just show up” at MHO [DS: Dr. Fata's company, Michigan Hematology Oncology, P.C.]. These foreign doctors – who do not have a license to practice medicine in the United States – introduce themselves to patients as “Doctor.”

The unlicensed doctors are generally assigned to examine Dr. Fata’s patients and complete write-ups of their exam. Dr. Fata typically sees his patients for only a few minutes at the end of their typical 2-4 hour visit to the clinic. The rest of the patients’ time is spent with the unlicensed doctors and other MHO staff. This arrangement allows Fata to routinely see 50-70 patients per day while other doctors in his practice see between five and ten.

Dr. Fata’s behavior and rampant, criminal healthcare fraud likely killed many of his patients. But it’s also a lesson in medical reputations, which aren’t always reliable. Fata was consistently rated as one of the best cancer doctors in the area by his colleagues, was repeatedly published, and got National Institutes of Health grants from the government for research and studies. All of that published work and so-called “research” is probably fraudulent, like his medical billings, and may be based on the foreign docs giving chemo to those who didn’t have cancer.

If you were involved in reporting Dr. Fata to authorities in any way (specifically employees EE-1 through EE-5 referenced in the complaint), you should contact me, because you could make a lot of money for the service you performed in whistleblowing. And if you know of someone who is ripping off the government, whether it’s Medicare or Medicaid fraud (as I noted, Muslims and Arabs make up the lion’s share of those who get caught doing this) or something else, please e-mail me, because you could make a lot of money filing a sealed federal Qui Tam lawsuit under the False Claims Act, which forces the feds to investigate and gives the person who reports the fraud a percentage of the recovered money (I’ve filed such suits before and know how to do it).

Dr. Fata isn’t the first, and he won’t be the last. Remember Dr. Hussein “Sam” Awada?

Many more like Awada and Fata in our midst. If you want to help report them (and make some good money in the process), let me know. I can help you.
They must be exposed and stopped.

Doctor Fata’s Mansion Paid for with Millions in Medicare Fraud . . .


http://www.debbieschlussel.com/65069...gave-em-chemo/

Dr. Farid Fata Sentenced to 45 Years in Prison as Cancer Misdiagnosis Victims Tell All

Jenna Birch July 10, 2015


Dr. Farid Fata (Photo: Zuma Press)

A mouthful of missing teeth. Chronic pain all over the body. Unrelenting weakness in joints and muscles. Even death. Those were some of the claims that Dr. Farid Fata’s victims heaped upon him at his sentencing trial this week for administering at least 2,000 unnecessary chemotherapy treatments.

Fata admitted to misdiagnosing and exposing his cancer patients to unneeded and excessive rounds of chemotherapy to collect payments from both them and their insurance companies. He was sentenced on Friday to 45 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Paul Borman — which will most likely cover the rest of the 50-year-old’s natural life.

WXYZ-Detroit Videos
The sentence was greater than the 25 years that the defense advocated for, but well under the 175-year maximum requested by the prosecution. In total, his scam affected roughly 550 victims and racked up $34.7 million in payments. Fata’s restitution hearing is still coming; he has already agreed to turn over $17.6 million.

Prior to the announcement, Fata’s attorney argued that a sentence over 25 years would result in death, due to his client’s diabetes and hypertension, and asked that he “see light of day before he goes.” According to court reporters, Fata stood next to his lawyer and appeared to be crying.



In total, his scam affected roughly 550 victims and racked up $34.7 million in payments.

“I do not know how I can heal the wound. I do not know how to express the sorrow and the shame,” Fata said to victims and families as he addressed the court prior to his sentencing. “The quest for power is self-destructive. They came to me seeking compassion and care. I failed. Yes, I failed,” he said, according to Detroit’s Channel 4.



Back in September, Fata pleaded guilty to “13 counts of health care fraud, two counts of money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks,” according to the Detroit Free Press. Some of the patients never even showed evidence of having had cancer, something whistleblower Dr. Soe Maunglay began noticing in records soon after he was hired at Fata’s practice, in 2012.

Fata’s former patients, and the loved ones of those who had passed, had a chance to speak in court this week.

“Farid Fata, I hate you,” said Laura Stedtfeld, whose father passed away while under Fata’s medical care, according to US News & World Report. “You are repulsive. You disgust me. You are a monster. … You poisoned, tortured, and murdered my dad.”

According to former patient Christopher Sobieray, doctors he consulted after Fata’s scheme was exposed were “appalled” by his massive overtreatment for testicular cancer. “Look at what’s left of my mouth — I have one tooth left,” he said. “They had no idea how I was sitting in their office. … I will never be the same.”

(Photo: AP Images)

Teddy Howard was another former patient of Fata’s.

He does not have cancer and now must take additional medicine for the rest of his life as a result of the phony treatments. “What really makes me angry is the fact that he lied,” Howard toldCBS News. “He knew he was lying, he gave the drugs to me anyway, and I had no knowledge of it, and now my life is turned upside down. I can’t do anything about it. I don’t know how long I’m going to live.”

The damage Fata amassed with his fraudulent cancer treatments is simply tragic. “I think he’s guilty of the most cruel thing that a human being can do to another human being,” former colleague Maunglay said.

What’s the toll of excessive cancer treatments on the body?

For context, there are many variations involved in chemotherapy, according to William Oh, chief in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York.

“Chemotherapy isn’t just one drug, but rather a group of drugs used in cancer patients,” Oh tells Yahoo Health. “They work by exploiting the difference between regular cells and cancer cells, which grow at a much more rapid pace.”

This is why a hallmark side effect of chemotherapy drugs is hair loss, says Oh, among other side effects like low blood-cell counts or loss of cells in the mouth and reproductive system. Normal cells that also reproduce quickly get caught in the crossfire of the powerful drugs.

Oh says it’s tough to know how overtreating a patient with chemotherapy — or giving a cancer-free person these powerful drugs — will affect the person, since chemo responses are so individual. But the drugs are extremely strong and need to be dosed with the utmost caution by a trained doctor.

“Chemo can be lifesaving when used in the right setting by people with advanced cancers,” says Oh. “But it’s definitely a case of using the right drug on the right patient at the right time — and you should absolutely not use chemotherapy if misdiagnosed, or in this case, something a little different.”

Oh says if you or a loved one has cancer, it’s important to do your own research and get a second opinion about your diagnosis and treatment. “Talk to several people about the drugs you’re getting, and why you’re getting them,” he says. “There’s a lot of good information online now about chemotherapy treatment, too. And if you’re ever unsure if your diagnosis is correct, it can never hurt to get a second opinion.”

https://www.yahoo.com/health/dr-fari...666153837.html