Psychologists Shot Down Nine Times in 2007

Seen in this report

The National Psychologist reported in its Sept/Oct 2007 issue that prescription privileges bills to give psychologists prescription privileges in nine different U.S. states failed in each and every case. Most never left committee, reflecting the leadership’s unease of granting prescription rights to non-medical professionals.

The bills failed in Hawaii, California, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee and Oregon. It came closest to passing in Hawaii, but was vetoed by the governor when it reached her desk.

What’s at stake here?

Two powerful professional organizations — the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association — butting heads over whether it is safe to allow psychologists, with additional medical training, to prescribe psychiatric medications.

Psychologists receive little or no formal training in medicine in their graduate studies today (as most physicians who are not psychiatrists receive little or no formal training in psychological theory and practices). If psychologists gained greater prescribing authority, they could rely less on medical doctors, such as psychiatrists, to prescribe common psychiatric medications.

Psychologists argue that there is a demand for such services in rural and areas throughout the country that currently do not have coverage by psychiatrists.

Doctors argue such privileges are already available to professionals who want them by undergoing medical school or similar training.

Psychologists believe they don’t need such intensive training because psychiatric medications are largely limited to affecting the mood, and don’t interact as much with other body systems.

As anyone who has looked into the side effects of psycho-active drugs knows, this last point is a woefully naive take on the situation. I can only imagine what additional horror stories await us if this were to go through.

Belleville psychiatrist billed government for 40-hour day

For those keeping track, there are only 24 hours in a day, but this freak billed for 40. As seen here

Belleville psychiatrist Ajit Trikha seemed to be able to pack a lot into one day.

On 76 days from 2001 to 2004, Trikha billed Medicare and Medicaid for more than 24 hours per day for patients' individual therapy, according to a federal agent's court affidavit.

Twice, Trikha said he packed 40 hours' worth of appointments into one day.

In court on Tuesday, Trikha admitted the truth — that he and his company, TRX Health Systems, had submitted fraudulent billings to Medicare and Medicaid between 2000 and 2005. He agreed to pay back $1.85 million.

Trikha pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis to two counts of health care fraud. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he could face 30 to 37 months in prison and a fine of $6,000 to $60,000, the plea agreement says.

He also agreed to forfeit proceeds from the scam, which may include property in Belleville and Town and Country, documents show.

TRX pleaded guilty of mail fraud and agreed to pay a $1,000 fine, $10,911 restitution and spend five years on probation. Trikha is listed as president, secretary and treasurer of TRX, which was started in 2000.

Asked where the money from the fraud went, Trikha's lawyer, John Stobbs, said, "Dr. Trikha was scammed." He would not elaborate.

In the plea agreement, Trikha agreed to help prosecutors investigate other criminal conduct, both in Illinois and elsewhere.

Court documents show that Trikha acknowledged billing for a 45- to 50-minute session when he spent little or no time with the patient, billing for sessions when no patient was present and billing for group therapy when he had "far exceeded" the recommended 12 patients per session.

He also admitted billing for services provided when he was actually out of the country.

Trikha's plea agreement is not specific about the individual false billings, but an affidavit filed by Special Agent Kenneth Wells II of the inspector general's office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is more specific.

Wells' affidavit, the basis of a search warrant for Trikha's offices in 2005, says investigators were first alerted by a Medicare contractor that analyzed billings and found Trikha billing for a certain type of group medical psychotherapy more often than any other doctor in Illinois. He also was at the top for several types of individual psychotherapy sessions, the affidavit says.

Trikha sent 683 claims to Medicare and Medicaid for services provided while he was on a trip to Amsterdam in 2003, and 492 claims when he went to Paris in 2004, the affidavit says.

The indictment cites Medicaid billings for 92 patients when he was in London in 2005.

On March 18, 2005, Trikha billed Medicare and Medicaid as if he had provided services to 83 patients, but investigators watching his office saw patients in the office for only about 2 1/2 hours, the affidavit says.

Later that year, it says, a woman complained that Trikha was billing for psychotherapy sessions for her mother even though she had Alzheimer's and was unable to communicate.

Psychiatric unit is forced to quit taking new patients due to complaints against doctor

A story we missed from the ST. Louis Post-Dispath of February 17th.

State officials have ordered Jefferson Memorial Hospital to stop accepting new patients in its psychiatric unit until complaints by two patients against a doctor are resolved.

In a surprise visit to the 40-bed psychiatric unit at the hospital in Crystal City on Feb. 9, investigators with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services determined that actions by the doctor could have created "an immediate and serious threat" against patients, department spokeswoman Nanci Gonder said Friday.

"We did find concerns related to the safety and well-being of the patients there," Gonder said.

Neither she nor Mark Brodeur, Jefferson Memorial's chief executive officer, would discuss the nature of the complaints or any specific allegations against the doctor.

The doctor, who was not identified by state or hospital officials, no longer works at the psychiatric unit, Brodeur said.

He declined to say whether any disciplinary action was being taken against the doctor. No patients in the unit were harmed in any way, he added.

"The state always acts very swiftly and very strongly" in response to such complaints, Brodeur said.

"We have a very thorough corrections plan that we're ready to present to the state," he said.

If the state accepts the corrections plan, the psychiatric unit can resume accepting new patients, Gonder said.

For now, Jefferson Memorial is referring new psychiatric patients to St. Anthony's Medical Center in south St. Louis County or other hospitals in St. Louis County, he said.

Mental Health Abuse and Neglect in Missouri

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch investigation has found abuse and neglect of mentally retarded and mentally ill residents in state centers and in private facilities the state supervises. Since 2000, there have been more than 2,000 confirmed cases of abuse and neglect with 665 injuries and 21 deaths. This investigation was published over a 4 day period, with many graphics, interviews, and additional information documenting the horror story. And it is all available online here

Missouri Task Force Recommends Investigating Abuse, Neglect, and Deaths in State Mental Health Facilities

From the Springfield News Leader

The state should establish a board to review the deaths of adults in state mental-health facilities, a task force recommended Wednesday in a report that made no mention of improving fire safety.

The report comes days after a fatal fire at the privately run Anderson Guest House, a residential care facility licensed by the state Department of Mental Health.

The task force focused many of its 25 recommendations on improving the procedures for reporting abuse and neglect in state- operated facilities after a newspaper series detailed abuse problems in these facilities.

The eight-member panel crafted its recommendations upon gathering public testimony at hearings across the state, including one this summer in Springfield.

"We never heard one word from any of the 271 witnesses about fire safety," said Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, task force chairman.

The panel calls on the Department of Mental Health to:

- Pursue accreditation of its six habilitation centers and community providers that serve people with developmental disabilities

- Ensure staff are trained on identifying and reporting abuse and neglect

- Increase penalties for failure to report abuse and neglect

- Establish a mental-health fatality review board

- Allow access to nonconfidential information in substantiated abuse and neglect investigations

Gov. Matt Blunt formed the task force in June. In August, the panel heard southwest Missourians voice concerns about the safety of family members in state mental-health centers.

"These recommendations represent what Missourians told us they wanted for the state's mental-health system," Ron Dittemore, interim director of the Department of Mental Health and task force co-chairman, said in a statement.

Earlier this year, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported 21 deaths were linked to abuse and neglect at state-affiliated centers. The series revealed a flawed system of reporting and oversight.

State Auditor and U.S. Sen.-elect Claire McCaskill has called for more oversight for these facilities in a handful of state audits.

Though the Anderson Guest House holds a Department of Mental Health license, the state Department of Health and Social Services performs routine inspections.

That agency is supposed to inspect twice a year, but budget cuts have allowed for only annual reviews, a spokeswoman said.

Kinder said he expects the legislature will review the department's budget in the upcoming legislative session to restore funding for inspections.

Reviews of the Anderson Guest House in March 2006 and December 2004 revealed no deficiencies in fire safety. The nonprofit Joplin River of Life Ministries operates the center.

"This facility, as far as we know, was compliant with existing fire safety regulations," Kinder said. "We along with everyone else in state government will be looking and looking again at measures to improve fire safety."

One measure that took effect in August mandates an automatic sprinkler system for assisted living facilities. As a residential care facility, the Anderson Guest House does not fall under these regulations.

Advocacy groups have called for sprinklers to be installed in long-term care facilities. The one-story home had a fire alarm system but no sprinklers, which was not required by the state.

"The costs are enormous to install sprinklers in older buildings," Kinder said. "I'm not saying I'm against it. That's why it has not been done to date. As we learn more about the cause of this fire and how it spread, we can all review."

Criminal Probe Launched in Fire That Killed 10 in Missouri Mental Health Home

As seen on Fox News

State fire investigators were trying to determine Monday whether a fast-moving early morning blaze that killed 10 people and injured two dozen at a southwest Missouri group home for the elderly and mentally ill was deliberately set, Gov. Matt Blunt said.

"We're not saying it is definitely a crime scene, but we are treating it as if it is and trying to determine if the fire was set by somebody who had a nefarious motive," he said.

"It is being treated as a suspicious fire," he said, without elaborating about potential evidence.

Supervising Investigator Bill Zieres with the Missouri Fire Marshall's Office tells Fox News officials have pinpointed the ignition point in the northeastern part of the building. Zieres says they've found no physical evidence so far to indicate the fire was deliberately set. Zieres adds nothing has been ruled out and investigators are trying to keep an open mind to any possibility.

One thing investigators are checking out is a gas furnace and electrical wiring in the part of the building where the fire started.

Zieres says firefighters got on the scene very quickly but had a difficult time getting control of the fire, which quickly chewed through the wood roof of the building.

The home had fire alarms but no sprinklers, said Assistant State Fire Marshal Greg Carrell.

One of the dead was a worker in the home and the other nine were residents, Blunt said. Authorities had not yet released the names, pending notification of relatives.

"I saw the front door blow open with fire," said neighbor Steven Spears, 47, who was watching TV and saw the blaze erupt through security cameras stationed outside his home. "I know most of them (the residents). I've talked to all of them at one time or another. It still hasn't hit me."

The home is operated by Joplin River of Life Ministries Inc. A woman who answered the phone there said the firm would not immediately comment but might release a statement later Monday.

The dead ranged in age from early 20s to the elderly. Eighteen people were taken to area hospitals and six were treated at the scene. The home had 32 residents and two employees inside when the fire was reported around 1 a.m., Highway Patrol spokesman Kent Casey said.

Two people were in serious condition at a Springdale, Ark., hospital. Freeman Hospital West in Joplin would not release the conditions of four people sent there after the blaze. All the other survivors who went to area hospitals were either in good condition or had been treated and released.

Officials were refusing to say how the victims died or whether they had warning. Blunt also said authorities were still investigating whether the home's residents were in bed when the fire began.

Asked if two staff members were enough to look after 32 residents, Blunt said that was up to state health officials.

"Again, it was late at night," he said. "That would impact to some degree the amount of care that is necessary."

There also was no information to suggest any of the victims were originally from Anderson, a town of mostly small businesses and manufacturing and whose residents commute roughly an hour south to Wal-Mart headquarters in northwest Arkansas or the businesses that have sprung up around the retailing giant.

On Saturday, there was a mattress fire on the other side of the building. No one was injured in the first fire, which was still under investigation when the second blaze began. Investigators say there's nothing to indicate that the deadly blaze was a rekindling of the earlier fire.

Inspectors from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which licenses the facility, found some deficiencies at the home in March but none related to fire safety, agency spokeswoman Nanci Gonder said.

"This is a devastating situation and we express our sympathy to the families of those who were killed or injured in the fire," Gonder said in a news release.

The deaths were the most from a single blaze in Missouri in recent memory.

"It's terrible," Casey said. "I have never been involved in a fire in which 10 people lost their lives."

The home is a residential care center licensed by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The facility also has a license from the state Department of Mental Health that allowed mentally ill residents to live at the home and receive treatment elsewhere.

The facility was cited in March for grease buildup in the kitchen, uncovered fluorescent light fixtures, allowing meat to thaw on the kitchen counter instead of in a refrigerator, allowing a resident to take more than the prescribed dose of an inhaler and not requesting criminal background checks as quickly as required by law for new two new employees. All the deficiencies were corrected within three weeks, according to the health department.

In 2003, a patient suffering from dementia and multiple sclerosis, set fire to her bed and burned down the Greenwood Health Center in Hartford, Conn., killing 16 residents. Six months later, in September 2003, a fire killed 15 patients in Nashville, Tenn.