Posts Tagged ‘criminality’

Chesterfield Psychiatrist Admits Health Care Fraud

Monday, November 21st, 2022

Dr. Franco Sicuro, a psychiatrist from Chesterfield, Missouri, pleaded guilty November 15, 2022 to a felony conspiracy charge and admitted that Medicare, Medicaid and other insurers lost more than $3.8 million based on fraudulent reimbursement claims submitted by clinical laboratories that he owned.

Sicuro was associated with various health care businesses including Millennium Psychiatric Associates, Advanced Geriatric Management, Centrec Care, Sleep Consultants of St. Louis, Midwest Toxicology Group, Genotec Dx and Benemed Diagnostics.

Criminal Fraud is rampant in the psychiatric industry. Psychiatric membership bodies do not police this criminality. Instead, as former president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), Paul Fink, arrogantly admitted, “It is the task of the APA to protect the earning power of psychiatrists.”

The mental health monopoly has practically zero accountability and zero liability for its failures. This has allowed psychiatrists to commit far more than just financial fraud, such as repeated allegations of physical and sexual abuse involving patients in various psychiatric facilities.

The primary purpose of mental health treatment must be the therapeutic care and treatment of individuals who are suffering emotional disturbance. It must never be the financial or personal gain of the practitioner.

Experience has shown that there are many criminal mental health practitioners. If you become aware of such, file a fraud report here: https://www.cchr.org/take-action/report-psychiatric-abuse.html.

What is needed is legislation that provides not only more effective oversight but also stronger accountability measures: criminal and civil penalties, removal from CMS programs (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and their funding, and hospital closure where systemic abuse is found. Only such a comprehensive solution can begin to thwart the level of abuse, fraud and malpractice that is so widespread today in the for-profit mental health industry. Contact your local, state and federal representatives and express your opinions about this.

Doctor Pleads Guilty to Mental Health Care Fraud

Monday, November 7th, 2022

A Stratford, Connecticut internist pleaded guilty November 3, 2022 in Hartford federal court to health care fraud and kickback offenses.

Dr. Ananthakumar Thillainathan, 44, a citizen of Sri Lanka and owner and president of MDCareNow LLC, a medical practice with offices in Stratford and Milford, submitted to Connecticut Medicaid over $800,000 in fraudulent claims for psychotherapy services that he knew patients did not receive.

Thillainathan submitted fraudulent claims to Medicaid that falsely represented his employees had rendered 60-minute psychotherapy sessions when, in fact, his employees only had very brief conversations with patients, had only left a voicemail for patients, or had no contact with patients at all.

This news shows that mental health care fraud is being perpetrated not only by psychiatrists but also by non-psychiatric medical doctors engaged in mental health care.

The fact is, mental health care fraud in the U.S. is estimated to be up to $20 billion per year. There should be no place for criminal intent or deed in the field of mental health.

There are as many types of mental health insurance fraud as the criminal mind can invent. For example, a U.S. congressional committee issued a report estimating that Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) had diverted between $40 million to $100 million to improper uses. Various CMHCs had built tennis courts and swimming pools with their federal construction grants and, in one instance, used a federal staff grant to hire a lifeguard and swimming instructor. [Reference: Rael Isaac and Virginia Armat, Madness in the Streets, (The Free Press, New York, 1990), p. 98.]

The primary purpose of mental health treatment must be the therapeutic care and treatment of individuals who are suffering emotional disturbance. It must never be the financial or personal gain of the practitioner. Those suffering are inevitably vulnerable and impressionable. Proper treatment therefore demands the highest level of trustworthiness and integrity in the practitioner.

Experience has shown that there are many criminal mental health practitioners. If you become aware of such, file a report about this fraud here: https://www.cchr.org/take-action/report-psychiatric-abuse.html.

Missouri Psychiatrist’s License Revoked

Monday, December 6th, 2021

Missouri Medical Board Revokes License of Psychiatrist Gerald Slonka Based on Controlled Substance Violations

On April 26, 2021, the Missouri State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts ordered that the medical license of Parkville [Kansas City Metropolitan Area] psychiatrist Gerald F. Slonka be revoked. Prior to the revocation, suspensions of his license had been ordered in 2016, 2017, and 2018 for failure to file or pay state taxes.

The current revocation order was based on Slonka’s violation of various drug laws and regulations.

He unlawfully possessed controlled substances not prescribed to him; failed to use an appropriate form or sign a digital order when taking possession of and distributing schedule II controlled substances; and failed to maintain proper records, receipt and/or inventory of the controlled substances he possessed and distributed.

In addition, he did not maintain a controlled substance administration and dispensing log separate from patients’ charts, and failed to provide adequate controls to detect and prevent the diversion of controlled substances into unauthorized channels.

The Board found the discipline imposed necessary to protect the public.

[Source: Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Order of Revocation in Default, Case No. 2018-003364, Missouri State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts v. Gerald F. Slonka, M.D., April 26, 2021.]

Crime and Fraud in the Mental Health Industry

A prison term or revoked license has not always stopped a psychiatrist from later attempting to acquire a license elsewhere or even to take up unlicensed practice or practice in a sector of the healing arts that is not regulated.

For this reason, Citizens Commission on Human Rights exposes people in the mental health industry who have been criminally charged, convicted and/or sentenced as well as those who have been investigated and charged by state health care licensing boards.

To report psychiatric fraud or abuse, fill out and submit the form here:
https://www.cchr.org/take-action/report-psychiatric-abuse.html

To file a Complaint about a psychiatrist in Missouri, fill out and submit the form here:
https://pr.mo.gov/healingarts-complaint-forms.asp

To file a Complaint about a psychiatrist in other states, go here:
https://www.psychsearch.net/complaints/

Arrest Warrant

Pediatric Psychiatrist Committed Research Fraud on Children

Saturday, August 4th, 2018

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has a long-running history of severe and even fraudulent wastage of taxpayer funds.

“Newly obtained records raise additional concerns about the research and oversight of Dr. Mani Pavuluri, a star pediatric psychiatrist at the University of Illinois at Chicago [UIC] whose clinical trial studying the effects of the powerful drug lithium on children was shuttered for misconduct.”

“A ProPublica Illinois investigation earlier this year revealed that the National Institute of Mental Health ordered the university to repay $3.1 million in grant money it had received to fund Pavuluri’s study.”

“NIMH demanded the refund, a rare rebuke, after determining there had been ‘serious and continuing noncompliance’ by Pavuluri as well as failures by the university’s institutional review board, or IRB, a faculty panel responsible for reviewing research involving human subjects.”

“Among other findings, NIMH concluded Pavuluri tested lithium on children younger than 13 though she was told not to and failed to properly alert parents of the study’s risks. A university investigation concluded she falsified data to cover up the misconduct, according to documents.”

“She resigned from UIC effective June 30”, 2018.

“She plans to open a treatment center, called the Brain and Wellness Institute, in Lincoln Park, according to a website.”

De-registered, even criminally charged and jailed psychiatric professionals can skip states, even countries and continue practicing. Some of the most infamous mental health criminals continue to “care” for the most vulnerable in society by simply changing offices, cities or countries.

Crime and fraud in the mental health industry is rampant. Psychiatric and psychological professional associations do not police ethical breaches, violations of law or criminality in their ranks. For these reasons, Citizens Commission on Human Rights developed a database that lists people in the mental health industry who have been criminally charged, convicted and/or sentenced as well as those who have been investigated and charged by state health care licensing boards.

Using this database at http://www.psychcrime.org/, members of the public, government agencies and others can track disciplinary or criminal cases, and verify whether a mental health practitioner has existing charges, and the result of prior charges including criminal or disciplinary records or convictions.

You can also consult the world’s largest collection of records on criminal and fraudulent psychiatrists at PsychSearch.net, and file a complaint against one.

After 69 years in business, and tens-of-billions-of-dollars appropriated, the research produced at NIMH has failed to identify a single biological cause of even one alleged psychiatric mental disorder. Instead, NIMH’s sister organization the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) publishes the fake news that 1 in 5 U.S. citizens are mentally ill, since they cannot prove it otherwise.

TheĀ  cornerstone of psychiatry’s disease model today, is the concept that a brain-based, chemical imbalance underlies mental disease. While popularized by heavy public marketing, it is simply fanciful psychiatric thinking. As with all of psychiatry’s disease models, it has been thoroughly discredited by competent researchers.

Don’t credit the hype – Find Out! Fight Back!