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twitterMedical board won’t act in alleged fraud case
Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Raye Kraft, at home with her dog Moxie, said she watched Drs. Dhiresh Joshi and Fadi El Salibi write notes in her now-deceased husband's medical records documenting examinations that she says, based on her observations and notes, they never performed.
Sun Coverage
The Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners has closed its case and will not discipline two doctors accused of billing for a patient they did not treat, according to correspondence with the woman who filed the complaint.
The Sun reported in March allegations by spouses of patients and employees at medical facilities against infectious disease specialists Dr. Dhiresh Joshi and his then-employee Dr. Fadi El Salibi. The physicians were accused of writing in patient charts and billing insurance companies and the government for examinations they did not perform.
One of the complaints was filed by Raye Kraft, who said the doctors wrote in her bedridden husband’s charts as if they had examined him, when they actually had not even entered the room. She kept detailed notes of incidents in May 2007 at HealthSouth Tenaya when the treatment — or alleged lack of treatment — took place.
A Sept. 9 letter to Kraft from Dr. Charles Held, chairman of the medical board’s investigative committee, said that “although a person may have a reasonable complaint against a physician,” Nevada law defines what matters are policed by the board. The investigative committee will close the case, “but there are other actions available that the (committee) may use to address an issue, and/or correct behavior,” Held added.
The medical board does not publicly comment on its investigations. It is primarily concerned with patient safety and the complaint in this case was more related to alleged fraud.
Kraft is not satisfied with the medical board’s response. She believes the doctors committed fraud.
“What more evidence does the medical board want?” Kraft said. “The doctors were not taking care of patients. They were taking care of lining their pockets, and I think that’s not safe for patients.”
Joshi did not respond to the Sun’s call for comment. El Salibi did not want to comment specifically about the case. Previously he told the Sun that he blamed Joshi for forcing him to see too many patients in a day, which caused him to have bad communication with patients, which led to the complaints.
• • •
The California Nurses Association labor union filed a complaint in July with the National Labor Relations Board accusing MountainView Hospital administrators of intimidating employees and not allowing them to freely campaign for union representation.
Sun Archives
In a letter to the union, the National Labor Relations Board said its investigation found unfair labor practices, citing laws related to coercion, discrimination and interference.
Last week the hospital agreed to settle the complaints — thereby ending the investigation — by posting a notice to employees that promises that managers will not interfere with the union’s organizing attempts.
MountainView has about 425 nurses and is owned by the Tennessee-based chain Hospital Corporation of America. It is one of the few nonunion hospitals in Las Vegas.
MountainView administrators said in a statement that the settlement required no admission of guilt and that the allegations were not heard before a judge. The hospital denies any wrongdoing. Administrators claim the settlement is their way of speeding an election, where the nurses will reject the union.
“By agreeing to the posting … we prevented months of litigation that would have cost the nurses a lot of time waiting for a vote to throw the union out,” the hospital’s statement said.
Orsburn Stone, a nurse at the hospital, said the settlement shows that administrators went overboard in their fight with the union.
“They feel like they are above the law and don’t have to adhere to the legal rights of anyone,” Stone said.
Nurses are “elated” that they can finally campaign using the “true facts” about the hospital’s poor staffing levels and mistreatment of employees, he said.
• • •
New numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show that more than one in five Nevadans — about 548,000 people — went uninsured in 2008.
About 15.4 percent of Americans were uninsured in 2008, the bureau found.
Discussion: 18 comments so far…
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The Nevada Medical Board, is the most useless piece of trash. Why even have it? They never discipline anyone.
And has anyone noticed all these "imported" doctors seem to be the one doing all these things?
Hell they still haven't done anything to Desai.......who basically I believe should be charged with attempted murder........
maggots, maggots everywhere...
look at this absolutely pathetic medical board...
they seem to think they are there to protect the money grubbing whore doctors and not the citizens of nevada...
what complete and total maggots...
make no mistake boys and girls...
the medical board is a failure...
the medical board is a complete and total failure...
chuckie held is a failure...
chuckie held is a complete and total failure...
louis ling is a failure...
louis ling is a complete and total failure...
tony clark was a failure...
tony clark was a complete and total failure...
monkie boy gibbons is a failure...
monkie boy gibbons is a complete and total failure...
district david roger and attorney general catherine cortez masto won't do anything...
hell the hepatitis criminals have portraits of those 2 idiots above their fireplaces...
every night they make a toast to those 2 idiots and then laugh and laugh and laugh until they fall asleep...
bottom line...
the legislature needs to blow the medical board up...
and start over from scratch...
there are 2 people that have a clue with regard to this matter...
senator steven horsford at 775-684-1429 - shorsford@sen.state.nv.us...
assembly woman sheila leslie at 775-684-8845 - sleslie@asm.state.nv.us...
contact these 2 folks that actually have a clue on this matter and express your outrage at the maggots on the medical board...
also if these 2 folks are not your senator or assembly person call your senator and assembly person and ask them what the hell they are doing about the maggots on the medical board...
maggots, maggots everywhere...
let's all start squashing some of these maggots!!!
Un freaking believable! Sure the "Doctors" motive is/was money by means of fraud, but the result was to put patients at risk due to substandard or zero care as per their "OATH".
Reforming the healthcare system is vital to our country, and this reform should be to prevent practicing doctors from doing bogus billing as depicted by the article. Healthcare insurance reform is another matter all by itself, and this should be left up to the marketplace to police. It's called Capitalism.
Maybe somebody should be deported.
hey vet...
let the brilliant birdie splain something to you skippy...
medicine should not be about capitalism...
got that pal...
because you see skipster...
the bad actors or criminals don't feel the economic effects of their bad acts or crimes until after somebody gets harmed or killed...
take the hepatitis criminals for example...
their business didn't blow up until after they had already potentially fatally harmed 50,000 innocent patients...
all to save a few pennies...
got that skippy...
hate to tell you this skipster...
but cutting taxes and free markets will not solve everything...
and it is an absolute shame that you stupid pathetic lying republicans don't have the mental capacity to comprehend more than those two tired old concepts at the same time...
who the hell would want to join the stupid pathetic lying republican party these days...
nobody!!!
Next election cycle we will all be watching smooth t.v. productions done by our elfin District Attorney David Roger telling us how tough on crime he is. Desai is not charged. Lacy Thomas, that whale from Chicago and friend of former county commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, who (Lacy the Whale) presided over UMC and its missing approx. $30 million and the leprechaun David Roger charges NO ONE.
Attorney Jeanne Winckler, Mitch Posin, Phil Singer and Doug Crawford all personally embezzled or their law firms took tons of client money and no criminal charges filed. Except for Jeanne Winckler, who got a sweetheart deal from the DA.
There appears to be so much corruption that our supervisory boards and elected prosecutors are inured to it. Of course, David Roger was accussed of illegally taking $50,000 from strip club felon Michael Galardi, with his best man criminal defense attorney Peter Christiansen allegedly being the bag man. Just allegations mind you, but perhaps David Roger lets all these theiving lawyers off the hook because of a guilty consciense? Does our soft on crime District Attorney refuse to prosecute money-crimes because, subconsciously, he lives in a glass house and does not want to throw stones? See Frank Cremen's website for more information on the $50,000 allegations involving David Roger, Pete Christiansen, and Mike Galardi. Cremen ran against David Roger in the last election.
We need a new district attorney. And a new attorney general.
district attorney david roger is a maggot...
period...
end of story...
hey dave the maggot...
answer me this skippy...
what do you think the hepatitis criminals will be doing this long week end...
hmmm...
playing golf...
hmmm...
catching a show...
hmmm...
laughing at you...
hmmm...
you disgust me dave the maggot...
you have failed the people of clark county...
you have failed them terribly...
districy attorney dave roger the maggot must go!!!
American Capitalism has made America great, and will sustain her through periods of government interference produced by leftwing communists like Reid and Obama.
Capitalism did not make America great. Individuals made America great, invention made America GREAT!
America's capitalism; Enron?, Walmart? China loves Walmart, AIG?, the list is endless.....capitalism in America is dead. Political corruption is, with the GOP, in bed with BIG BUSINESS!
Christ is a socialist.
It's one thing to get bad sevice at a restaurant or have some sales person rub you the wrong way but, These dastardly scum bags literaly have patients lives in their hands.Desai and his buddy need to go on a one way hunting trip! I think pig is in season!
I think someone has to put together a ballot measure to create a Medical Board which (1) is elected by the public and (2) is required to have as its membership 33% nurses, 33% consumers who are not in the medical field and 34% doctors. That way, we would have people who are not self interested, avaricious and stupid regulating physicians in Nevada.
The foregoing is not a crazy idea. In California, the board which regulates the conduct of lawyers is controlled by non-lawyer consumers. The lawyers don't like it but the crooked lawyers do get punished.
And, as a final note, when I was in a certain hospital west of Durango Blvd. In 2006, for 3 weeks, strange doctors I didn't request or authorize kept coming in to see me. They didn't even bother to introduce themselves. They would just do something stupid like take my pulse, or listen to my heart, and walk out. Of course they would bill my insurance. It was like I was a near-dead carcas lying there for a bunch of blood sucking leeches to feed on. Fortunately, since my hospitalization was being paid for by my worker's compensation insurance, my case manager ripped all of those blood suckers a new ahol and told them she would not pay them.
Funny, I never got bills from any of the blood suckers in the mail. Perhaps it was because they were afraid of being disciplined by the Medical Board. No more. Now Nevada's doctors know they can rip off hospitalized patients with impunity.
hey cynical...
excellent post as always...
bottom line...
this medical board must be blown up...
this medical board does not protect the citizens of nevada...
this medical board protects it's own...
that is wrong...
period...
end of story...
the legislature has the power to blow it up...
the legislature has the power to start over from scratch...
horford and leslie get it...
the other maggots in the senate and assembly need to get it...
and get it fast...
or we need to boot their sorry behinds out of office...
maggot, maggots everywhere...
let's all start squashing some maggots!!!
in my brilliant post above...
strike "horford"...
and replace with "horsford"...
sorry senator...
Any person accused is innocent until proven guity
Any person accused is innocent until proven guilty
The Medical Board received over 600 complaints in 2008, but took action in only 27 of these cases. What is unusual about Kraft's case is that the Board's dismissal of an obviously serious and well documented complaint got some public attention. The question is, how many people have been injured or killed by physicians after the Medical Board failed to address similarly legitimate complaints? How many complaints were received against charlatans such as Desai and then dismissed for no reason? People should also know that NV doctors can avoid any supervision whatsover by obtaining a homeopathic licence. While the Med Board acts in a handful of cases, often after doctors have been charged with serious crimes--keep an eye on M. Jackson's personal physician--the Homeopathic Board has not disciplined anyone since it was established in 1983.
Really, how many people must be harmed before the NV legislature takes some meaningful action to reform the regulation of healthcare? Maybe now that Louis Ling has resigned, he'll testify on behalf of the countless patients who have been injured or killed by the state's breathtaking crowds of corrupt physicians.(I'm not holding my breath.)
American Capitalism defeated world Fascism, world Communism, and will defeat world Terrorism. It has no equal.