Undocumented Immigrants draining social services?

How many times did you heard that Undocumented Immigrants are responsible for draining Hospitals and social services like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security Benefits. My point is when someone as a Citizen has been caught and supposedly committed fraud against those Social services has being protected by the Media, and by law under Presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Since August 2006, more than 450 hospitals across the country were subject to fraud investigations and the Goverment has been recovered Millions.
Audits should be “particularly challenging from a provider perspective. The conditions for billing Medicare can be incredibly technical and a number of health care systems don’t always use the exact, correct language in their medical records and don’t have systems in place to ensure documentation is being done correctly” — which can lead to disallowed payments and payment recovery by the government against the provider.
Prosecuting health systems, hospitals and physicians for Medicare and Medicaid fraud was a priority during the Bush era, and should continue as a focus under the new administration.
With the Barack Obama administration taking office, Lucinda Jesson, director of Hamline University’s Health Law Institute, expects to see some shift in priorities from the Bush era. The Obama plan for more cost-effective health care is expected to include more emphasis on primary and preventive care but also should focus on effective regulations.

ANDERSON MAN CHARGED WITH DEFRAUDING THE INDIANA MEDICAID PROGRAM OF OVER $900,000

Timothy M. Morrison, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, announced that DENNIS LENNARTZ, 55, Anderson, Indiana, was charged with defrauding the Indiana Medicaid program, following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and The Indiana Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

The information alleges that beginning in April 2006, DENNIS LENNARTZ, knowingly defrauded the Indiana Medicaid program of $964,852.59, by billing for services not actually rendered. In furtherance of his scheme, LENNARTZ concealed his involvement from Indiana Medicaid by billing under the provider number of another company.

"This case demonstrates the commitment of the Office of Inspector General working with our Federal and State law enforcement partners to protect our Nation's vulnerable Medicaid recipients," said Lamont Pugh III, Special Agent in Charge for the Chicago region of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General which covers the State of Indiana. "Defrauding the Medicaid program isn't fair to the taxpayers who deserve accountability," said Attorney General Steve Carter. "Even more tragically, though, it wastes money that would otherwise provide healthcare for those who can't afford to pay."

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley P. Shepard, who is prosecuting the case for the government, LENNARTZ faces a maximum possible prison sentence of 20 years and a maximum possible fine of $250,000. An initial hearing has been scheduled for January 20, 2009 before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The information is an allegation only, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at trial or by guilty plea.

State Gets $67,000 in Medicaid Settlement

North Dakota Human Services officials say the state has received more than $67,000 as its share of a settlement with drug maker Cephalon, Inc.

Officials say the state`s share of $67,723 is part of a $425 million settlement involving the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units and the federal government. The company was accused of illegally arketing three of its drugs.

Federal prosecutors, in announcing the settlement last fall, said Cephalon also agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of distribution of misbranded drugs.

Officials say the settlement reimburses the federal government and states for amounts paid by the Medicaid program as a result of the company`s improper marketing campaign. The program covers medical services for the needy.

The settlement includes a $375 million civil settlement and $50 million in criminal fines and penalties.

Undocumented Immigrants draining social services? A lie or a Lie.

I really question the Notion or lie that Undocumented Immigrants draining social services or brankrupt Hospitals.

If they were too old to work chances are they would not be here. And if they can not work due to some physical problem chances are they would not be here either. The vast majorities of Undocumented Workers entering U.S. are between 18-30 years old and are fit for work. I think the stats on this so-called social services drain is more fiction than fact. And again if a few they are not paying their fair share of the taxes you can not blame them, they do not sending the tax money, the employer does.

I will continue exposing the fact that Hospitals, CEO's, Managers, vendors, Suppliers, even some Doctors are the burden and the major factor of draining U.S. social services and not the Undocumented Immigrants.

Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Ill., is to pay $36 million to settle allegations it accepted improper payments, federal prosecutors said Monday. The settlement resolves allegations the center accepted improper payments from Medicare and Medicaid programs for more than five years. Continue reading here:

A federal judge in Houston on Monday also ordered 55-year-old Edem James Etuk to repay nearly $1.6 million to Medicare and Medicaid. Continue reading here:

An Alabama court has ordered two major drug companies to pay the state more than $114 million after finding them guilty of Medicaid price fraud. Continue reading here:

Walgreen Co., owner of Walgreens Pharmacy, has agreed to pay $35 million to settle a federal lawsuit accusing it of defrauding Medicaid by switching patients onto more expensive drugs, Continue reading here:

A doctor who claimed he provided Medicare and Medicaid-covered services in Martinsburg - more than 250 miles away from his office near Parkersburg, W.Va. - has been named in a 157-count indictment by a federal grand jury in Martinsburg. committed mail fraud by devising a scheme to defraud in an attempt to obtain about $2.25 million from Department of Health and Human Services programs. Continue reading here:

Are you follow me; Continue reading because this is not the ending.

The former president of the Nevada State Medical Association, the state’s largest physician advocacy group, is one of six Las Vegas doctors who have repaid a total of $625,000 to the federal government to resolve allegations of Medicare fraud stemming from an apparent kickback scheme. who allegedly performed unnecessary services and then submitted claims to Medicare, the federal government’s insurance program for people who are disabled or over age 65. Continue reading here:

An investigation into what the authorities say was a scheme that used homeless people to bilk tens of millions of dollars from federal and state health insurance programs began four years ago with a tip from a rescue mission employee. federal agents raided three private for-profit hospitals — Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center, City of Angels Medical Center, and Tustin Hospital and Medical Center in Orange County — in connection with an alleged fraud scheme involving federal Medicaid and state Medi-Cal health insurance programs. Agents arrested Dr. Rudra Sabaratnam, owner and chief executive of City of Angels Medical Center, and Estill Mitts, who is accused of recruiting patients from his Skid Row storefront church, the 7th Street Christian Day Center. Mr. Mitts posted $25,000 bond and is confined to his home. Dr. Sabaratnam posted $700,000 bail. Continue reading here:

Bayer HealthCare will pay $97.5 million plus interest to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to 11 diabetic supply companies in a "cash-for-patient" scheme, and caused those suppliers to submit false claims to Medicare. Continue reading here:

Health care continues to top the government's list of federal fraud investigation priorities, yielding the lion's share of recoveries in false claims cases in 2008.

The latest figures from the Dept. of Justice show enforcement officials recouped $1.34 billion in settlements and judgments under the False Claims Act in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Of that total, $1.12 billion, or 84%, came from health care entities. The act gives federal officials authority to prosecute fraudulent billing of any government program.
That number represents a drop from the $1.54 billion in recoveries reported in 2007 and a record $2.2 billion in 2006. But that doesn't mean federal prosecutors have let up efforts to combat health care fraud, said Russell Hayman, a partner and health care fraud expert with McDermott Will & Emery LLP in Los Angeles.
The government tallied its biggest returns in 2008 from settlements with pharmaceutical firms Merck & Co. Inc. and Cephalon Inc., and managed care company Amerigroup, with recoveries ranging from $225 million to $361 million.

But what was the outcome and consecuence of the Narrow minded, and Anti Immigrant sentiment? coming soon...

your hard earned tax dollars at Illegals hands.

Can you believe this? Well, of course you can. After all, it's the strange and sour marriage between Medicare and phony equipment suppliers.

Medicare shut down more than 200 medical equipment companies last year. Why? Because they either were operating out of their hats, with no actual business addresses, or because they had been implicated in fraud or even indicted for fraud.

Now, get this: Advance your clock to 2008. Medicare allowed 90 percent of these fake companies to go back into business because of "flawed appeals processes." Great balls of fire! If a private enterprise operated that way, it would be out of business within two days. And the merry-go-round continues, because after allowing these scam artists to go back to their scams, Medicare decided to shut them down again. And meanwhile, a number of them had the opportunity to send out spurious bills again.

The sad but undeniable evidence is that federal agents visited, unannounced, some 1,581 Medicare suppliers in South Florida. Of that number, a solid one-third — 491 to be exact — had no business operation or just weren't open because they had no employees. Nice deal, isn't it? So Medicare revoked their billing privileges again, but so what since about half of them appealed, and based on nothing but an invalidated appeal, Medicare reinstated just about all the ones who appealed. An Inspector General's report is unsurprising: Medicare's hearing officers applied "no criteria" for accepting anything offered as evidence. An electric bill or a simple statement would do it.

One lawyer — Miami-Dade not Broward, thank goodness — represented fifteen so-called Medicare providers. Seem familiar? The whole charade has been a comedy of errors.

Comedy, all right, but when these counterfeit claims hit us taxpayers in the pocketbook it isn't funny.

Every now and then, the law actually clamps down on a couple of flimflams. One of them was ordered to pay $11 million in restitution. That's a hefty amount and it gives us an inkling of the number of dollars Medicare fraud represents.

Here we are, about to enter 2009. Medicare costs are about to increase again, and anyone who deludes himself or herself that fraudulent claims (yes, by people on Medicare, too) aren't partly responsible has been living on Mars.

We should be outraged that our public servants are so casual in accepting non-evidence as evidence. But every one of us is so used to "business as usual," we've long since substituted acceptance for outrage.

The phrase, "your tax dollars at work," never has been as derogatory and uncomplimentary as it is today. Will a new administration actually do something about these suppliers who treat Medicare officials as suckers? Will exposure such as this make any difference?

Don't count on it because corruption are at the tip of the Iceberg and of course the people without Voice and Political support are always being blame for it.

These are the comments from the Nativist and Anti Immigrants Jim Gilchrist and Jerome Corsi:

The large numbers of illegal immigrants already living in the country have put an enormous fiscal strain on government-funded social service programs because many of the illegal immigrants who arrive here are impoverished and undereducated. They are then forced to supplement their low-paying incomes with social welfare benefits, including those fraudulently obtained, to make ends meet. Moreover, the willingness of these illegal immigrants to commit fraud—both tax fraud and social service fraud—compounds the problem, as they work the system to get the maximum benefit from government-funded social services….

Why we as American citizens do not speak out loudly enough against these generous Social fraudulently beneficiaries(Hospital CEO's, CFO's, Doctors, and the list goes on and on) on behalf of U.S. Taxpayers?.

Undocumented Immigrants Stealing Social Security Benefits?

That's sounds familiar to you. Well check this out. Buchanan County Auditor Susan Montee’s failure to audit the county administrator under investigation for embezzling $4 million in Social Security payments raises serious questions about whether Montee intentionally ignored the situation because of her political and personal relationship with the administrator.

The Associated Press reports that state investigators are questioning Bonnie
Sue Lawson in connection with the missing Social Security checks dating back to at least 2005 when complaints were first made to the state Department of Health and Senior Services. Montee, who has the authority to conduct an audit of the state administrator’s office, has received hundreds of dollars in political contributions from friend Lawson.

“The political and personal relationship between Susan Montee and Bonnie Sue Lawson raises serious questions about how millions of dollars in essential payments to elderly Buchanan County residents disappeared right under Montee’s nose,” said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. “Susan Montee must come clean about her relationship with Bonnie Sue Lawson and the role it played in her failure as county auditor. This situation also raises serious issues about Montee’s competency and integrity as a candidate for state auditor.”

State investigators and St. Joseph police have seized computer equipment and other documents from Lawson’s office in a case that potentially affects hundreds of clients. Montee’s failure to monitor the activities of the county administrator is serious since administrators often serve as guardians, conservators, personal representatives and representative payees for certain citizens including minors, the mentally incompetent and the disabled.

“Susan Montee failed to keep an eye on an individual who is entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of the finances for some of our state’s most vulnerable citizens,” Sloca said. “One has to wonder whether her personal and political relationship was more important to her than the citizens of Buchanan County.
Know John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former Buchanan County, Mo., official pleaded guilty in federal court today to embezzling $118,000 from Social Security payments intended for dependent or disabled clients served by her office.
Bonnie Sue Lawson, 68, of St. Joseph, Mo., waived her right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner this afternoon to a federal information that charges her with stealing public money.
“This former elected official abused the public’s trust and stole public money that was intended to assist the vulnerable clients who were dependent upon her,” Wood said.
Lawson served as Buchanan County Public Administrator from her election in 1996 until her resignation in August 2006. As Public Administrator, Lawson was appointed as the guardian for mentally impaired or developmentally disabled adults in instances where these adults had no one else who was willing to act on their behalf. Some of the clients under Lawson’s care received Social Security Administration benefits on a monthly basis. Lawson, who was appointed by the Social Security Administration as the representative payee for clients who were identified as either physically or mentally unable to handle their own financial affairs, established separate bank accounts where the Social Security funds were deposited. Lawson maintained control over the accounts.
By pleading guilty today, Lawson admitted that, from Sept. 1, 2003, to Aug. 21, 2006, she embezzled funds from these accounts for her own use.
Lawson accomplished her embezzlement by generating checks payable to herself under the guise that the proceeds were to pay her fees. The checks or embezzled monies were above and beyond any legitimate payments due to Lawson as representative payee. Lawson then altered the accounting records, maintained electronically, in her Public Administrator’s office in order to conceal her embezzlement. Lawson also concealed her embezzlement by submitting false and fraudulent reports to the Social Security Administration.
Approximately 120 separate client accounts were identified by investigators as having been embezzled by Lawson. Investigators also calculated an aggregate loss figure of approximately $118,000 from Lawson’s embezzlement activities. This sum represents Social Security payments intended for the use and care of dependant or disabled clients.
Under federal statutes, Lawson is subject to a sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000 and an order of restitution. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
For a video; Click Here:

Taxes on Table for $7 Trillion Social Security Shortfall

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D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) said that all options except privatization are on the table, including tax hikes, to pay the $7 trillion needed to cover Social Security's budget shortfall

Are you applying for social security benefits? Sometimes we need to laugh

After retiring, An elderly man went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked him for his driver's license to verify his age. He looked in his pockets and realized he left his wallet at home.

He told the woman that He was very sorry, but He would have to go home and come back later.

The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'. So he opened his shirt revealing his curly silver hair.

She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and
she processed his Social Security application.

When he got home, he excitedly told his wife about his experience at the Social Security office.

She said, 'you should have dropped your pants. Then you might have gotten disab ility, too.'

Undocumented Immigrants draining social security system right? Wrong.!!!!!!!

Apparently I guess it's hard to support your family on a meager $6 MILLION a year.



Republican presidential candidate John McCain cashes his monthly Social Security checks despite calling the federal program "a disgrace," the Associated Press reports.

"I'm receiving benefits," McCain told campaign reporters, but added, "the system is broken."

In 2007, he received benefits of $23,157 from Social Security, approximately $1,930 a month. The maximum monthly benefit under Social Security is $2,185. Social Security benefits are determined by age at retirement.

McCain, who is 71, has received benefits since he was 65.

Last week, McCain told observers at a town-hall meeting in Portsmouth, Ohio, "Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers ... and that's a disgrace."

B.J. Jarrett from the Social Security Administration said that individuals can refuse retirement benefits.

In 2006, McCain's wife Cindy earned $6 million, and has a net worth of approximately $100 million

No Match, No Justice.!!!!!!!!! By Marissa Graciosa

The Bush Administration is wrongly forcing government contractors to verify the legal status of their work force with the Social Security Administration.

For me, this is personal.

My mother taught me how to write my numbers. Raised in the Philippines and schooled by nuns who traced their roots back to Spain, she makes her 1s like a lot of Europeans -- straight sticks with a leaf-like line coming off the top toward the left and the whole thing leaning toward the right as resting in the shade from the afternoon sun.

My 1s are my mother's descendants, but anyone might easily mistake my 1s for 7s. And if a clerk for the Social Security Administration makes that mistake or other mistakes like that it could cost me and 13 million Americans our jobs.

The Social Security Administration's "match list" is notoriously error prone. The agency's own inspector general found that 13 million of the 17.8 million "no matches" were actually U.S. citizens. So the assumption that if you don't have a match, then you're here illegally is wrong at least 70 percent of the time! The discrepancies had occurred because of clerical errors or other innocent things, such as name changes from marriages or divorces.

The unreliability of the "match list" figured prominently in the reasoning of the U.S. District Court for Northern California, which ruled last year that the practice would harm thousands of innocent workers and employers. In another case, an appellate court in California this June ordered the company that runs the Staples Center in Los Angeles to reinstate 33 janitors it had summarily fired after receiving "no match" letters.

But this has not deterred President Bush. On June 9, he signed an executive order requiring all contractors and other companies that do business with the federal government to verify their employee's identity in the federal Social Security database.

The Social Security Administration has better things to do. Chasing after undocumented immigrants who have Social Security taxes deducted from their incomes but don't ever withdraw from the system because their ID numbers are false, not only wastes government's time but actually robs us of that additional tax income.

Meanwhile, millions of U.S. citizens are also terrorized in the process by businesses looking for any excuse to abuse and fire workers.

And employers looking to evade the ruling will resort to sub-contracting more of their workforce, a practice that reliably lowers wages and benefits across the economy. In an interconnected economy, we need solutions that help all of us, rather than finger-pointing as we collectively race to the bottom.

My 1s might look funny, but why put me and 13 million Americans at risk at a time of growing economic uncertainty? Unfortunately, that's not a typo.

Undocumented Immigrants boolster social security retirement.

Have you ever wondered what happens to all the money collected for Social Security that Undocumented Immigrants don't get? Do you know who are the most concern to any legalization for Undocumented Immigrants and why?
Seniors and retirement boomers are against any form of legalization for Undocumented Immigrants that could cost Social Security billions in future payments and will almost certainly trigger benefit cuts for baby retirement boomers and senior citizens.
What happens to the money assigned to people using false identities, or names matched with the wrong Social Security Number (SSN), or newlyweds who forgot to register their name changes with the Social Security administration?

The answer lies in a little-known aspect of the Social Security behemoth known as the Earnings Suspense File (ESF).

The ESF has become a hotbed for debate over everything from immigration rights, as it continues to accrue money at roughly $ 7 billion a year, with the total as of 2005 sitting at $660 billions.
During 2000-2005 the total number of mismatched wage reports jumped from 217 million to 274 million- 82% higher than during the 1990's and more than double the rate of the 1980's. Over the same period, wages in the Earnings Suspense File more than doubled, from $301.8 billion to $660 billions.

Since Undocumented Immigrant crossing the Mexican border into the United States six years ago, Ángel Martínez has done backbreaking work, harvesting asparagus, pruning grapevines and picking the ripe fruit. More recently, he has also washed trucks, often working as much as 70 hours a week, earning $8.50 to $12.75 an hour.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Martínez, 28, has not given much thought to Social Security's long-term financial problems. But Mr. Martínez - who comes from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico and hiked for two days through the desert to enter the United States near Tecate, some 20 miles east of Tijuana - contributes more than most Americans to the solvency of the nation's public retirement system.

Last year, Mr. Martínez paid about $2,000 toward Social Security and $450 for Medicare through payroll taxes withheld from his wages. Yet unlike most Americans, who will receive some form of a public pension in retirement and will be eligible for Medicare as soon as they turn 65, Mr. Martínez is not entitled to benefits.

He belongs to a big club. As the debate over Social Security heats up, the estimated seven million or so Undocumented immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year.

While it has been evident for years that Undocumented immigrants pay a variety of taxes, the extent of their contributions to Social Security is striking: the money added up to about 10 percent of last year's surplus - the difference between what the system currently receives in payroll taxes and what it doles out in pension benefits. Moreover, the money paid by Undcoumented workers and their employers is factored into all the Social Security Administration's projections.

Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, co-director of immigration studies at New York University, noted sardonically, could provide "the fastest way to shore up the long-term finances of Social Security."

It is impossible to know exactly how many Undocumented immigrant workers pay taxes. But according to specialists, most of them do. Since 1986, when the Immigration Reform and Control Act set penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, most such workers have been forced to buy fake ID's or ITIN Numbers to get a job.

Currently available for about $150 on street corners in just about any immigrant neighborhood in California, a typical fake ID package includes a green card and a Social Security card. It provides cover for employers, who, if asked, can plausibly assert that they believe all their workers are legal. It also means that workers must be paid by the book - with payroll tax deductions.

IRCA, as the immigration act is known, did little to deter employers from hiring Undocumented immigrants or to discourage them from working. But for Social Security's finances, it was a great piece of legislation.

Starting in the late 1980's, the Social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect - sometimes simply fictitious - Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the "earnings suspense file" in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to.

The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990's, two and a half times the amount of the 1980's.

In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes.

In 2002 alone, figures released by the Social Security Administration, nine million W-2's with incorrect Social Security numbers landed in the suspense file, accounting for $56 billion in earnings, or about 1.5 percent of total reported wages.

Social Security officials do not know what fraction of the suspense file corresponds to the earnings of Undocumented immigrants. But they suspect that the portion is significant.

"Our assumption is that about three-quarters of other-than-legal immigrants pay payroll taxes," said Stephen C. Goss, Social Security's chief actuary, using the agency's term for Undocumented immigration.

Other researchers say Undocumented immigrants are the main contributors to the suspense file. "Undocumented immigrants account for the vast majority of the suspense file," said Nick Theodore, the director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "Especially its growth over the 1990's, as more and more undocumented immigrants entered the work force."

Using data from the Census Bureau's current population survey, Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, an Think Tank group in Washington that favors more limits on immigration, estimated that 3.8 million households headed by Undocumented immigrants generated $6.4 billion in Social Security taxes in 2002.

A comparative handful of former Undocumented immigrant workers who have obtained legal residence have been able to accredit their previous earnings to their new legal Social Security numbers. Mr. Camarota is among those opposed to granting a broad amnesty to Undocumented immigrants, arguing that, among other things, they might claim Social Security benefits and put further financial stress on the system.

The mismatched W-2's fit like a glove on Undocumented immigrants' known geographic distribution and the patchwork of jobs they typically hold. An audit found that more than half of the 100 employers filing the most earnings reports with false Social Security numbers from 1997 through 2001 came from just three states: California, Texas and Illinois. According to an analysis by the Government Accountability Office, about 17 percent of the businesses with inaccurate W-2's were restaurants, 10percent were construction companies and 7 percent were farm operations.

Most immigration helps Social Security's finances, because new immigrants tend to be of working age and contribute more than they take from the system. A simulation by Social Security's actuaries found that if net immigration ran at 1.3 million a year instead of the 900,000 in their central assumption, the system's 75-year funding gap would narrow to 1.67 percent of total payroll, from 1.92 percent - savings that come out to half a trillion dollars, valued in today's money.

Undocumented immigrants help even more because they will never collect benefits. According to Mr. Goss, without the flow of payroll taxes from wages in the suspense file, the system's long-term funding hole over 75 years would be 10 percent deeper.

Yet to immigrants, the lack of retirement benefits is just part of the package of hardship they took on when they decided to make the trek north. Tying vines in a vineyard some 30 miles north of Stockton, Florencio Tapia, 20, from Guerrero, along Mexico's Pacific coast, has no idea what the money being withheld from his paycheck is for. "I haven't asked," Mr. Tapia said.

For Undocumented immigrants, Social Security numbers are simply a tool needed to work on this side of the border. Retirement does not enter the picture.

"There will be a moment when I won't be able to continue working," Mr. Martínez acknowledges. "But that's many years off."

Mario Avalos, a naturalized Nicaraguan immigrant who prepares income tax returns for many workers in the area, including immigrants without legal papers, observes that many older workers return home to Mexico. "Among my clients," he said, "I can't recall anybody over 60 without papers."

No doubt most Undocumented immigrants would prefer to avoid Social Security altogether. As part of its efforts to properly assign the growing pile of unassigned wages, Social Security sends about 130,000 letters a year to employers with large numbers of mismatched pay statements.

Though not an intended consequence of these so-called no-match letters, in many cases employers who get them dismiss the workers affected. Or the workers - fearing that immigration authorities might be on their trail - just leave.

Last February, for instance, discrepancies in Social Security numbers put an end to the job of Minerva Ortega, 25, from Zacatecas, in northern Mexico, who worked in the cheese department for a popular discount food retailer with a large operation in California.

The company asked dozens of workers to prove that they had cleared up or were in the process of clearing up the "discrepancy between the information on our payroll related to your employment and the S.S.A.'s records." Most could not.

Ms. Ortega said about 150 workers lost their jobs. In a statement, Mike Campbell said that it did not fire any of the workers, but Robert Camarena, a company official, acknowledged that many left.

Ms. Ortega is now looking for work again. She does not want to go back to the fields, so she is holding out for a better-paid factory job. Whatever work she finds, though, she intends to go on the payroll with the same Social Security number she has now, a number that will not jibe with federal records.

With this number, she will continue paying taxes. Last year she paid about $1,200 in Social Security taxes, matched by her employer, on an income of $19,000.

She will never see the money again, she realizes, but at least she will have a job in the United States.

"I don't pay much attention," Ms. Ortega said. "I know I don't get any benefit."

Why Nativists and protectionists poisoned the Immigration debate rather than a constructive solution to the problem?






For years Undocumented Immigrants has been accused that they are drained the Social Services like Medi care and Medi Caid but the big part of the equation that no one said anything is Health Care fraud.!!!!!!!!!! Why?.

I had been exposed several of Health care frauds ending up in Billions of dollars in taxpayers pocket expenses and scapegoating the Undocumented Immigrants.

The undocumented people are denied almost all benefits but, yet they are a huge contribution to the economy. The point is that Corporate America Is treating immigrants like slaves. Therefore segregation is not over.

So is not the right to live anywhere one wishes as long as one is peaceful human; right? Who is it to say those in power, those more bigoted or wealthy can tell another human where they are allowed to pursue happiness and peace. Deny welfare or medical benefits but work hard, paid taxes, get lower wages, then being persecuted, scapegoated, diminished and demonized.!!!!!!! Those are our Human Values?.

It's pretty clear that we need immigrants from a macroeconomic level, but we need a Humane comprehensive Immigration reform..


A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money," the late Senator Everett Dirksen is supposed to have said.*

And so it is today with health care fraud, a burgeoning crime plague that's adding up in a big way, big-ticket scheme after big-ticket scheme, essentially costing you money every time you walk into a hospital or doctor's office or fill a prescription, whether you know it or not. The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association estimates that this fraud collectively costs Americans between $60 billion and $100 billion a year. Ouchhhhhhhhhhh.

We're the primary investigative agency, with jurisdiction over federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid (both big targets) and private insurance programs, all the while working hand-in-hand with plenty of public and private sector partners.
Locally, our agents team up with their investigative counterparts on health care fraud working groups, task forces, and strike teams to tackle the biggest scams. Nationally, we have a Health Care Fraud unit at FBI Headquarters that helps support and coordinate field investigations and leads field-wide initiatives.

An anniversary, of sorts. It was 15 years ago, actually, that we ran our first major health care fraud investigation—"Operation Gold Pill." It involved about a thousand "professional patients" getting prescriptions for medicine they didn't need and having them filled at pharmacies that billed Medicare for much more than the cost.
The patients then sold the medication at a discount to dealers, who turned around and hawked it on the street or repackaged it and sold it back to the pharmacies—a full circle of crime.

Fifteen years ago this month, as the investigation came to a head, hundreds of FBI agents and other law enforcement professionals fanned out across the nation, making more than a 100 arrests and seizing more than $30 million in cash and assets.
By today's standards, that's pocket change. But soon, more resources came our way, and we were in the business of busting health care fraud full-time.

A million ways.... Today, the schemes are more complex, more time-consuming, and more costly than ever. "There's literally millions of ways to defraud health care," our Associate Deputy Director Joseph L. Ford told reporters this week. "They come up with new ways every day." Just a very few examples of what we see:

Hospitals, doctors, pharmacists, and other care providers submitting fake bills for services never rendered—or overcharge;

Service providers charging insurance for unnecessary and costly procedures;

Doctors selling prescriptions to patients for cash;

Companies billing insurance for expensive equipment but providing poor substitutes;
Crooked docs enticing patients to visit their offices for "free services" or gifts, then stealing their personal information and using it to file fake claims

Why blamed undocumented Immigrants for burden the medicare and Social Services programs? I had been exposed many cases of Medicare and social services frauds as well as the 47Millions of people uninsured that are part of the equation. Why???.




Another case Woman pleads guilty to conspiracy to defraud Medicare of aproximately $ 36.9 Millions.


(HOUSTON, Texas) - Khira Guillory, 27, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud Medicare of approximately $36.9 million, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today. At the time of the criminal activity, Guillory was the owner of KJB Medical Billing, an authorized Medicare billing company.

At a hearing held yesterday before U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller, Guillory admitted she participated in a 13-month conspiracy with several other individuals, including Rhonda Fleming, to defraud Medicare by repeatedly billing Medicare for Durable Medical Equipment (DME) which was never supplied to the Medicare beneficiaries as claimed. According to the indictment, at the time of the criminal activity, Fleming, 42, owned her own Medicare billing company, Advanced Medical Billing Specialists, as well as three DME supply companies, Medical Equipment and Supply Center (MESC), Hi-Tech Medical Supply & Delivery (Hi-Tech) and E&R Medical Supply (E&R).

During her plea, Guillory admitted to billing Medicare for approximately $7.4 million of DME which she knew had never been delivered to the Medicare beneficiaries. She also admitted that all but $12,600 of the claims she filed contained fictitious dates of service that were backdated to make it appear the DME had been delivered six to 23 months prior to the date she filed the claim. For example, Guillory admitted that on Nov. 17, 2004 , she filed claims totaling $1,054,000 on behalf of 111 Medicare Beneficiaries for an Infrared Heating Pad System and a Power Pressure Reducing Air Mattress with dates of service ranging from January to September 2003.

Based on Guillory's fraudulent billing, Medicare and Medicaid paid approximately $2,500,284 to DME companies owned by Fleming and other co-conspirators. Guillory also admitted to receiving $483,868.92 from Fleming for filing the false billings.

Guillory is scheduled to be sentenced April 25, 2008 , and faces a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for her conspiracy conviction. As part of her plea agreement, Guillory also agreed to pay restitution of $2,500,284 to Medicare.

Guillory and Fleming are charged in a 73-count indictment with four other individuals which alleges a scheme involving the filing of millions of dollars in claims with Medicare/Medicaid by DME companies for durable medical equipment, such as infrared heating systems, pressure reducing mattresses and lumbar supports, which they purportedly supplied to Medicare beneficiaries, but were never purchased by the DME company nor delivered to the beneficiary.

Also charged in that indictment with conspiracy to defraud Medicare are Bose Ebhamen, 41, Billy Perkins, 48, James Chaney, 44, and King Arthur, 53. Fleming, Ebhamen, Perkins, Chaney and Arthur are also charged with multiple counts of healthcare fraud and wire fraud. Three of the defendants, Fleming, Ebhamen and Chaney, are also charged with various counts of money laundering.

According to allegations in the indictment, Fleming purchased Medicare beneficiary information, including their names and Medicare numbers, from Chaney and others for use in the scheme. Perkins and other employees of Fleming created fictitious delivery tickets to give the appearance the DME had been delivered by Hi-Tech, First Advantage and E&R. Perkins allegedly also mislead Medicare by pretending to be the person Medicare thought was the owner of E&R Medical Supply, located in Lake Charles, La. Fleming and her five co-defendants' fraud scheme caused Medicare/Medicaid to pay out approximately $6.5 million in fraudulent claims.

During the Fall of 2005, the United States seized and forfeited approximately $1.8 million of the illegal Medicare/Medicaid proceeds obtained during the alleged conspiracy to defraud Medicare charged in this indictment. The indictment also seeks to forfeit the $6.5 million from the six defendants as proceeds of the fraudulent scheme.

Fleming and the remaining four defendants are scheduled for trial beginning Feb. 25, 2008 . The public is reminded that an indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. The defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.

The criminal charges are the result of a joint investigation conducted by agents of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI and the Medicare Fraud Control Unit of the Texas Attorney General's Office. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Al Balboni and Special Assistant United States Attorney Suzanne Bradley

How many immigrants, legal and Undocumented, get how much health coverage from where and what does it cost?

In response to that. This should be no surprise since 45 million AMERICANS are currently uninsured which restricts their access to fundamental preventative health care services. This has lead to the inefficient and expensive use of other services (i.e. ED) and has negatively impacted public health (regardless of immigration status). This is one of their assumptions that Many Undocumented immigrants are overwhelming the healthcare system and driving up the cost. is not true. "Vulnerable populations" such as "infants, youth, women, indigenous people, the very poor, the elderly and disabled do not have health care as well and are a part of the equation. In a recent poll that expressed that the majority thought that Undocumented immigrants were 50 percent responsible or more for the uninsured treated in hospitals leaves one with the question of its validity and wonder which portion of the population did this statistic come from.

The fact of the matter is that the most predictive factors in defining access to quality health care are income, zip code and race. White America for the most part have been the main part of the population who have lived in the better areas where health care has thrived at its peak. Depending on where you live will have a strong influence of the type of health services you will receive, anyway. When looking at the history of the United State concerning the availability of health care, it needs to be pointed out that undocumented immigrants have truly not been the first in line for anything. Income is a factor as well on the determination of who will receive health care, the statistics reveal blacks have the lowest median household income at 31.905, compared to the median for Latinos at 33,820, Asians at 47,631 and whites at 53,975. Although these household figures are not impressive the availability leans toward white America in being able to receive and have access to heath and all of its added benefits. The country with the most developed knowledge base is the US, and with all the advanced technology racial hidden biases exist influencing the choices made by scientist and industry as well. This has a trickle down affect to the front line of provided health care, lets look at some examples of this fact. On the front lines Whites are three times as likely to undergo bypass surgery that non-whites. Non-White patients seeking admission to nursing homes experience greater delays before placement that White patients. Doctors are less likely to do breast cancer screening for Hispanic women that for White women. Non-White pneumonia patients are seen less in hospitals that Whites, and finally, poor urban blacks and Hispanic neighborhoods have about 24 physicians per 100.000 compared to 69 physicians per 100.000 for poor white communities (Vernellia R.Randall, pg 1-8). It would appear that the cost of health care insurance is being driven up by the ones who are in line first and can afford it. The portion of the population that don't have access to adequate health care that provides the use of the most advanced technology in the world can't possibly be the cost drivers.

let's focus on the true problem at hand. Sadly the state of our failing healthcare system will place the blame on a minority with little to no political voice, despite their immense contributions to our economy. More concerning is the accusation that Undocumented immigrants are placing an undue burden on the U.S. health care system as a whole. An accusation that is largely unconfirmed, according to Mohanty, Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA. Cody so far has been the only one to solely address the issue of our failing health care system for what it is FAILING. Why is this? Employers, consumers and governments at every level are straining under the burden of a health care bill that is growing at a pace five or six times the rate of inflation. As the price tag for insurance increases employers pass the additional cost burden on to their employees; forcing workers to dig deeper into their pockets. The outcome is deleterious. Millions who can't continue to dig forgo coverage altogether and chance that their families will stay healthy.

the US spends nearly $5,000 per person on health care -- more than twice the amount of some other industrialized countries. But our life expectancies are horrible. Canada, for example, spends about 60 percent less per person than the United States but has longer life expectancies. Where is the return on investment? Why is the system failing us and our health? New medical technologies may be responsible for as much as 50 percent of U.S. medical cost growth. In addition, prescription drugs represent the fastest growing part of the health care bill, with Americans paying the world's highest prices for medication. While the industry says it needs to charge high prices to finance research and development, the largest pharmaceutical companies in 2002 spent 14 percent of their revenues on research and development while devoting 31 percent to marketing and administration.

The contributions of undocumented immigrants and the benefits they provide to the U.S. economy more than balance the health care resources they consume. In fact, the Social Security Administration has reported $56 billion in annual earnings from this population that help to generate almost $7 billion annually in Social Security tax revenue and an additional $1.5 billion annually in Medicare taxes. Also, undocumented immigrants contribute at least $300 billion to the U.S. gross national product annually.