By Bill Barth
My Aunt Inez – a chain-smoking, tough-talking brassy woman for her time – had a saying the family still quotes to this day, more than 30 years after her death.
“Never trust people where money’s concerned.”
I’m reminded of that. Often. A lifetime in journalism exposed me to more devils than saints, and if you look hard enough there are usually money schemes at the root of most problems.
Depressing. But you get used to it.
Even so, some bad behavior is just too sick to swallow.
The other night I watched a program that included a segment on fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, with particular emphasis on scams targeting hospice services. For those who may not be aware, hospice care is intended for people at the end of their lives. The intent is to help people die with dignity and as pain-free as possible after all hope of recovery is gone.
The numbers are shocking. The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association estimates annual fraud in Medicare and Medicaid exceeds $100 billion. CNBC quotes U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Special Agent in Charge for Florida, Omar Perez Aybar, saying, “That’s probably a conservative number. When we think about all lines of business in Medicare and Medicaid, that’s probably a drop in the bucket.”
It particularly pains me that investigators see fraud in hospice services as among the fastest growing.
The family lost my dad earlier this year. He was almost 96 and had lived a good and long life. His body quit on him, but his mind was still sharp. We called for hospice where he lived, in downstate Illinois, and it was a good decision. Two nurses regularly visited him. So did a nurse’s aide and a hospice chaplain. The four women became bright spirits in his life, tending gently to his physical needs and bolstering his psyche with beaming smiles, normal conversation and overflowing compassion. His condition was closely monitored, and when the time was right medications were administered to keep him calm and comfortable.
I don’t know how they do it. Every day. Patient after patient. When no one is getting better.
Angels.
My wonderful wife Stephanie Klett has been active with Beloit Regional Hospice, serving as its board president for a time, so we have been aware of this splendid service. Stephanie’s dad, the late Fred Klett, also was a hospice patient. The family experience in Beloit, like in my father’s case, was very positive.
Forget, for the moment, that fraud on this scale clearly is a major contributor to America’s $30-plus trillion national debt.
Instead, focus on what kind of monster it takes to illicitly profit from vulnerable people going through the worst moments of their lives, while undermining the services of those angels who are working so hard to help.
I’m not the vindictive type, normally, and maybe losing my father this year still stings too much. But if it were up to me, I’d handle scumbags convicted of this crime with a short rope and a long drop.
Despite Aunt Inez’s long ago family saying, I want to believe there’s still room in this world for trust and decency. Sometimes, though, that’s hard.
Another book
Regular readers know, now and then, I like to recommend a book. One of the latest I’ve read is titled “2034: A Novel of the Next World War,” by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis, published in 2021.
The retired admiral served as supreme commander of allied forces in Europe. Ackerman is the author of several books and is a former Marine Corps special operations team leader.
The writing is relatively pedestrian and sometimes the story gets predictable. Still, it’s a sobering look at how things could go horribly wrong internationally, from two men who have been there and done that. It illustrates how tribalism and political scheming weakens this country, while dangerous opportunities for miscalculation and despotism combine to create a combustible world.
The authors cite Lincoln’s warning: “All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years … If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.”
Something to read. Something to think about.
Bill Barth is the former Editor of the Beloit Daily News, and a member of the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame. Write to him at bbarth@beloitdailynews.com.
