05/24/2014    Paul Kesselman, DPM

Revocation of OH Podiatrist's Enrollment Affirmed (Bryan C. Markinson, DPM)

This Ohio DPM unfortunately brought upon himself
the wrath of our illustrious public government. He
failed in a number of ways as I and others have
previously commented.

To answer Dr. Markinson: if you can't show up for
work one day because of illness, family emergency,
or whatever reason, you should have a staff member
at the office; or at least arrange for a neighbor,
friend, store owner next door to place a simple
sign, closed due to.... will return on.... When
you sign up to be a DMEPOS provider, you are no
longer a physician, but a store owner with all
those responsibilities.

I'm not saying this system is fair. Dr. Markinson
and others are correct; One infraction should not
result in banishment from the system.
The gov't no doubt has gone haywire and overboard
in a rather feeble attempt to "right the ship"
away from those who have given up their guns and
now are white collar criminals disguising
themselves as DME suppliers.

The gov't has no doubt literally thrown the baby
out w/the bath water, by as Mr. Boone so
eloquently put it, placed a 800 lb. gorilla in our
offices.

Unfortunately, as Tip Sullivan said in his
posting, much of the time in news conferences you
will see gov't bureaucrats doing things to support
their very occupational existence instead of
really doing anything productive.

When I see OIG postings boasting about the arrest
of a $3M, $10M or more DME scam artist, I don't
applaud. As a taxpayer and provider of healthcare
services I get angry. Why did the system allow
this to go so far along in the first place? Why
can't the system put in place an inexpensive
mathematical computer model which would stop these
types of reimbursements from escalating at such a
fast pace in the first place?

The answer is PR and splashy headlines. A bust of
someone for $$Millions makes bigger headlines and
the bureaucrat gets a pat on the back. The gov't
just doesn't think its worth the investment in $$
to do stings on smaller amounts. However, how
often do you ever see follow up pieces about how
much of the money that was allegedly stolen was
recovered and returned to the treasury? Not
likely, and why? Most is off shore, out of reach
of the U.S. Treasury.

Instead as Tip put it, the gov't has enabled
private contracts with all sorts of acronyms to
take over healthcare and put in so many audit
levels, it would make any CPA or IRS agent become
frazzled. No longer is it about taking adequate
care of the patient. But of course, if you don't
do that properly there is bevy of malpractice
lawyers waiting to tear you apart.

Unfortunately, in the private sector its no
different. Suzanne Levine gets lambasted (perhaps
rightfully so), but the UHC managers
who approved these payments are not not fired,
demoted or slapped with a black mark in their
personnel file. They are applauded and
honored for finding out about this. My question is
where were you before and why if this was so
outrageous did you allow that check to go out in
the first place? How many others did go out not
only to Dr. Levine, but to other types of
providers?

The system is totally broken. I can't wait to get
out. Now my biggest fear as I approach my 60th
birthday, is if this system continues along its
current path is, who will be left to take care of
me when I need a doctor?

Paul Kesselman, DPM, Woodside, NY,
drkesselmandpm1@hotmail.com

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