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July
2010
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Why Are You Getting This Newsletter?
This free e-mail newsletter is sent to current and
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The Alzheimer’s Association site has a page of statistics for Texas. It’s frightening how many new cases are diagnosed each year. Here is a statement from the site:In the United States, 5.3 million people are living with Alzheimer’s disease, and a new individual is diagnosed with the disease every 70 seconds. Unless something is done, by 2050, up to 16 million Americans will have Alzheimer’s, and a new case will be diagnosed every 33 seconds.
Free Legal Advice?
Yes, at Kraft &
Associates we are glad to provide our clients
and friends with free information on a variety
of subjects. If you want details about how to
lower your automobile insurance rates,
Texas Workers' Compensation law or
Social Security Disability claims, please
contact us and we will send you any of these
brochures without charge or obligation. |
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Suite 1300
2777 Stemmons Freeway
Dallas, TX 75207
(214) 999-9999
(817) 999-9999
(800) 989-9999
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FOR THE RECORD |
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Lawsuit Says Dallas Ambulances Overcharged Federal Government by Millions of Dollars
Has the City of Dallas been over-charging for ambulance services? That’s the gist of a recent article in the Dallas Morning News. And now the city is facing a lawsuit from the federal government demanding repayment for as much as $40 million in overcharges and penalties. I don’t know whether these allegations are true, but I do know Dallas doesn’t have room in the budget to pay out this much money. These are hard times for most city budgets, and this lawsuit is bad news for Dallas. Here are excerpts from the article: The cash-strapped city of Dallas could owe the federal government $40 million or more if a whistle-blower lawsuit’s allegations of fraud involving billing for ambulance services prove true.
While the city says the specific amount it may owe the government has not been determined, it acknowledges that it is “fully cooperating” with federal authorities and will “move forward aggressively” to make sure any overpayment amounts are repaid.
The previously sealed lawsuit was filed earlier this year by Douglas Moore, a former assistant city auditor. It alleges that Dallas-Fire Rescue officials and the city’s longtime ambulance service billing vendor knowingly collected fraudulent overpayments from Medicare and Medicaid.
According to the suit, the city and Southwest General Services of Dallas billed the government for “Advanced Life Support (ALS) level ambulance services for all 911 calls, regardless of whether the beneficiary’s condition required that level of service.”
The suit alleges that 100 percent of the city’s ambulance calls were billed at the advanced rate – which is more expensive than the Basic Life Support (BLS) level – even though the city’s own documents showed that at least 40 percent of its transport calls should have been billed at the lower cost.
According to the lawsuit and his attorney, Moore learned of the alleged overpayments last year while doing an audit of ambulance billing services. At an April 8, 2009, meeting, the suit says, he heard a Dallas Fire-Rescue captain say that every ambulance call is billed at the advanced level. A document later produced by another captain showed that 60 percent of the department’s ambulance calls are at the advanced level.
A patient requiring advanced services could, for example, need an ambulance equipped to treat a gunshot wound, while lower-level services might be for anything as simple as abdominal pain. The lawsuit says that when Moore met with Scott Fothergill, chief operating officer of Southwest General Services, Fothergill told him that the criteria for billing at the advanced rate was that the ambulance have the proper equipment and staff available for use. “The patient’s condition is immaterial,” the lawsuit states.
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| FOR
YOUR INFORMATION |
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Medicaid
Planning to
Reduce or
Eliminate
Nursing Home
Costs
We are pleased to announce that our firm is now assisting people with legal planning to better deal with the high costs of nursing homes.
No one likes to think about the possibility of entering a nursing home. We would all prefer to live out our lives at home, surrounded by family members. Unfortunately, that is not always possible.
Medicare will NOT pay nursing home costs beyond the first few days. The only options are to "private-pay" or to have the bills paid by Medicaid. But to qualify for Medicaid a single person can only have a couple of thousand dollars in countable assets and must have monthly income below $2000. The limits are different, and the rules more complicated for married couples.
People who private-pay find, on average, that the nursing home expenses eat up all their hard-earned money in the first year or so. That leaves nothing to pass on to their children. But with our help, most people can qualify for Medicaid to pay nursing home costs, and can save half or more of their money for the benefit of other family members.
You do NOT have to be wealthy to use this planning. People with only a small savings account or a pension plan can save money by visiting with us. This planning can even be done AFTER a person has entered a nursing home.
For more information about the ways we can help your family, please call us now.
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| FEATURED
EMPLOYEE |
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 Dot
Gordon
Personal Injury Senior Legal Assistant
E-mail: dgordon@kraftlaw.com
Ms. Gordon attended both the University of Massachusetts and Fairleigh Dickinson
University. She began her law office experience with Mr. Kraft in 1971 and has
been employed by this firm since our founding in 1979. Ms. Gordon has worked in
several capacities with the firm, and now assists clients who have personal
injury claims.
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| FEATURED
CASE |
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Two Studies
Suggest
Diabetes
Drug Avandia
Increases
Risk of
Heart
Problems
We receive many calls about dangerous drugs, and the side effects they cause. One drug that has been in the news recently is Avandia. Here is a summary of articles about Avandia, and the dangers it may present:
ABC World News reported, “Two major studies have found the medicine called Avandia [rosiglitazone] could create a significant new risk of heart attack and other serious problems.”
The Washington Post reports that one study, “involving more than 35,500 people, found that Avandia significantly raises the chances of a heart attack.” A separate study “of more than 227,500 Medicare patients — the largest such study to date — found that the drug boosts the risk for strokes, heart failure, and death.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that the first study “found Avandia raised the risk of heart attacks by 28% to 39% as compared with other diabetes medications. The study was published online in the Archives of Internal Medicine.”
Bloomberg News quotes Steven Nissen, MD, lead author of the study, as saying, “I think we’ve got more than enough evidence to say this drug should not be used.”
USA Today reports that in the second study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “scientists from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration evaluated data from 227,571 Medicare beneficiaries taking either Avandia or Actos [pioglitazone hydrochloride].” The investigators found “no differences in the risk for heart attack between the two drugs, but the study found that compared with Actos, Avandia was associated with a 25% increased risk of heart failure, a 27% increased risk of stroke and a 14% increased risk of death.”
(From the American Association for Justice news release.)
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| HOW
CAN WE HELP YOU? |
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Our law firm has helped thousands of clients
over the years. Sometimes clients who use
our firm for one type of case may not
realize that there are other legal problems
we could help them solve.
We handle
most types of injury claims — including
automobile collisions, "slip and fall"
cases, injuries suffered as a result of
defective products, injuries resulting from
inadequate security, medical malpractice
claims, nursing home negligence claims,
prescription drug injuries, and many others.
We invite you to call us about any
serious injury to see how we can help you.
Kraft & Associates also represents people
who have been denied their Social Security
Disability benefits. We can help at the Initial
stage, the Reconsideration stage or the Hearing
stage.
Our law firm also represents people who have immigration
problems of any kind, whether family-based
immigration or employment-based immigration.
Our firm can help you understand your rights under
Federal and Texas consumer protection laws and
assist you with stopping creditor wrongdoing,
obtaining compensation for wrongful acts by
creditors, or with correcting your credit report. We
can also help you evaluate your options and decide
whether a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy case
might be your best option. Most clients can protect
all of their property, income, and assets in a
bankruptcy case, and obtain the "fresh start"
promised by the United States Bankruptcy Code.
Please feel free to call us with any
legal questions you may have. If we cannot
represent you, we will attempt to refer you to
another attorney or to a government agency that can
help you. There is no
charge or obligation for that first phone
call.
Kraft & Associates is
a federally designated Debt Relief Agency under the
United States Bankruptcy Code. We assist people with
finding solutions to their debt problems including,
where appropriate, assisting them with the filing of
petitions for relief under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. |
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