Medicare

Medicare Fraud and Skirball's Values: Readers Chime In

How Medicare Fraud Became the Nation's Most Lucrative Crime

It costs taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. But the feds say they're finally trying to crack down

Antonio Villaraigosa Grabs the Third Rail; Embrace of Social Security Cuts May Complicate Future Campaigns

Who knows what Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to do after he leaves office on July 1. Corporate board member? Professional speech-maker? Aspen festival goer?But if he intends ever to run for office again, his comments this week on the federal budget may come back to haunt him."We can strengthen th ... More >>

Flu Season Comes To Los Angeles, Blindsides Rest Of America

We survived the end of the world, the worst economy since the Great Depression, and the fiscal cliff. And you thought we were out of the woods? Nope. Flu season is your next big obsession if you're a pessimistic Debbie Downer who dwells on a dark future. Emergency room visits for this bug are expl ... More >>

Protesters Deliver Petition Urging Antonio Villaraigosa To Quit Fix the Debt

Protesters delivered a petition to City Hall today calling on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to step down from the Committee to Fix the Debt.Angela Garcia Combs, who launched the petition last week through MoveOn.org, printed out about 14,000 signatures and dropped them off at the mayor's office at ... More >>

How Drunk Would You Be If You Actually Followed the Presidential Debate Drinking Game?

Did you play the presidential drinking game on Wednesday night? Well, even if you think you did, you probably didn't -- mainly because if you're reading this then chances are you're still alive and not the victim of massive, massive case of alcohol poisoning. I mean, we get it, no one really plays ... More >>

Gail Anderson, Ex-Chief at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Sues County for Humiliating Him in the Times

Well, this is bizarre: The former chief medical officer of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (a giant Torrance hospital run by the county) was paid over $400,000 to sit in his lavish Manhattan Beach home for the last year. That's because Gail Anderson was unofficially fired by the L.A. County Department o ... More >>

Occupy L.A. Is Mad About Supreme Court's Obamacare Ruling

Who knew? Occupy Wall Street (and its Los Angeles faction) hates Obamacare. That's because, though your run-of-the-mill Westside liberal is likely to applaud the "health care for all!" initiative, the more skeptical end of the 99 percent sees it as just another victory for corporate America:

L.A. Budget Fix? City Analyst Suggests More Parking Tickets, Fees for On-Scene Medical Treatment and 911 Calls

Bill ya later.​When the Los Angeles City Council is low on cash, they tend not to look to their own overfunded executive offices -- or alleged untouchables like the corrupt, bulging Housing Authority -- for the answer. Nope: They look to their broke-ass constituents, already drowning in a dis ... More >>

Los Angeles: Broke and Broken

City Council clueless about vast, hidden costs in Villaraigosa's $6.9 billion budget

Mexican Macro-economics

Do undocumented migrants steal jobs from American workers?

Whose Dole Is It, Anyway?

10 In L.A. Indicted In $163 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme Said To Be Run By Armenian-American Organized Crime Syndicate

Google MapsThe Glendale home of Davit Mirzoyan, alleged to be a West Coast ringleader of the Medicare-fraud syndicate.​Ten of 73 people indicted in a huge scheme to bilk taxpayers out of $163 million were indicted this week in Los Angeles, federal authorities said. The mostly Armenian-America ... More >>

Saint John's Health Center Will Pay $5.25 Million to Settle Civil Fraud Investigation

​Saint John's Health Center of Santa Monica, hospital to the stars, will pay $5.25 million to the U.S. government to settle claims of over-billing Medicare. In doing so, the hospital acknowledges no wrongdoing. The hospital, which is where Farrah Fawcett died, had been under investigation fo ... More >>

UCLA: More Angelenos Without Health Insurance

​Nearly 29 percent of residents of L.A. County younger than 65 didn't have health insurance at some point last year, according to a new UCLA study. That's a staggering 2.7 million people and was significantly higher than the statewide average of 24.3 percent. Researchers blame the recession, ... More >>

L.A. Metro Bus, Rail Fares To Go Up In July

​One-way rides for Metro bus and light-rail riders will go up in price July 1 from $1.25 to $1.50, according to a scheduled fare increase that has been on the books for nearly two years. A daily pass will increase to $6 from $5, and monthly passes will bump up from $62 to $75. A Metro spokesm ... More >>

Man Sentenced For Recruiting Homeless For Government-Paid Health Care

Google Maps​The co-owner of a defunct Echo Park hospital was sentenced to more than three years in prison for his part in a kickback scheme in which healthy homeless people were recruited to receive government-paid procedures at the medical facility. Robert Bourseau, 75, of downtown and Ranch ... More >>

Man Pleads Guilty In Scheme To Recruit Homeless For Health Care

Skid Row.​An L.A. man pleaded guilty Tuesday to health-care fraud after he participated in a scheme to recruit homeless people on Skid Row to undergo unnecessary medical treatment that was billed to Medicare and Medi-Cal. Federal authorities say 49-year-old Vincent Rubio, former chief financi ... More >>

Man Bites Off Protester's Finger at Health Care Rally

KTLAAftermath: Blood on a sidewalk​Call it a case of bite and run, but a 65-year-old man opposed to health care reform struck another man who was trying to reach a MoveOn.org-backed pro-reform rally of 100 participants -- and had half his pinky finger bitten off in return. And, in a dramatic tour ... More >>

Abortion "Holocaust Survivors" to Protest at Corn Field Rally

​When Congress members and others opened the doors of town hall meetings to hear constituents' views on health care reform, they never dreamed of what was waiting for them on the doorstep. By now we're familiar with the images of red-faced elders shouting down meek Congressmen, or of gun-toting ac ... More >>

Mayo Clinic Scores Over Cedars-Sinai

The lesson for Los Angeles residents from a recent Rochester Post Bulletin story, carried by AP, might be, "Don't hold the Mayo Clinic." When President Obama touted the nonprofit clinics as a health-care provider he'd like to imitate nationwide as part of his health-care reform plans, the Post Bulle ... More >>

The John Birch Society Is Back!

Scrolling down a list of things to possibly do today, I came across an announcement for an appearance by John Birch Society president John McManus, who'll be in North Hollywood tonight talking about "America's Economic Meltdown." The John Friggin' Birch Society! A wave of heady nostalgia swept over ... More >>

Southland's Sickest Patients: Its Hospitals

Forget King-Drew Medical Center, the inner city hospital long regarded as the sick man of California's health care facilities. A recent spate of news reports shows that even the most suburban hospitals are rife with health-threatening incidents or financial difficulties. Today's L.A. Times reports t ... More >>

I.O.U.S.A.: Market Scare

Don't put too much stock in this panic-inducing documentary

DNC '08: It's Not My Party

And I'll stay home if I want to

¡ask a Mexican! Special Día De Los Impuestos Edition

Social Security, identity theft and why the Feds couldn't care less

Scandalous! A Year of Republican Treachery

Spare Change for My Butler

Economic theory from Craigslist

In Our Misery

The right to die faces a big test in Congress

Where Angels Fear To Tread

The Nanny Congress out of control

Terminator Genes

Repetition in politics, news, big business and human suffering

Bush’s Watergate

If it happens, keep your eye on Texas

To Succeed, Must We Secede?

Waiting for Karen

George’s pals are doing him wrong, but can Hughes save him?

The Obsessives

As Richard Clarke recounts it, Bush and his neos couldn’t be bothered with the facts of an impending al Qaeda attack

The Lost President

Can Karl Rove help this man find his way?

Les Moonves’ Hole Keeps Getting Deeper and Deeper

Ideologues Amok!

Right-wing zealots and our very own DiFi destroy Medicare, adjourn for turkey

Dr. G’s Hard Medicine

Will L.A. County’s top public doctor be remembered as the man who resuscitated health care for the poor or left it gasping for air on the operating table?

Fate of the Nation

Bush makes his bid for war — and re-election

The Bad Doctor

Bill Frist’s long record of corporate vices

Cruel Priorities

DHS's right paw doesn't know what its left is doing

Capitol Creeps

Now look what they’re trying to pull

A Man and His Message

Government’s not the problem; it’s Gore (but not as much as before)

Liberty and Justice for All

The Democratic Party platform you won’t see

What Los Angeles Needs To Know About the Democrats

Can the world’s oldest continuous political party regain its majority? Its activists? Its purpose?

Make Nice

The GOP goes gooey

Where's the Left?

American liberalism at century's end

Clinton Claims the Center

Is This Any Way To Run a Country?

Loony prosecutors! Rabid media! Oval Office obsessions!