Poor treatment at Lehigh Valley mental health clinics was evident, patients say

From a longer report in the Lehigh Valley Live website

Photo caption:Lehigh Valley Community Mental Health Centers Inc. at 226 Northampton St., Easton, is seen July 20, 2015. It is one of 10 mental health clinics sued July 20, 2015, by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, along with owner Melissa Chlebowski and Melchor Martinez. Martinez is alleged to have run the Medicare- and Medicaid-funded clinics in Easton, Bethlehem, Allentown, Philadelphia and Raleigh, North Carolina, despite a 2000 ruling excluding him from participating in these and any federally funded health care programs.

Director Allison E. Frantz said the department received complaints about the delivery of care at Lehigh Valley Community Mental Health Centers Inc., now the target of a federal whistleblower lawsuit. The department forwarded the complaints, prompting an investigation, she said.

"The Northampton County DHS has taken steps to ensure the county's citizens' behavioral health treatment would not be jeopardized: the provider network was enhanced to include additional bi-cultural, bilingual treatment professionals and regular and frequent on-site clinical reviews, including additional billing audits," Frantz wrote in an email Tuesday.

After the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced the lawsuit Monday, patients were left with myriad questions about the care they had received and whether the five local centers in Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown would remain open.

The suit also targets the centers' owner, Melissa Chlebowski, and her husband, Melchor Martinez, both of Allentown, as well as four sister mental health centers in Philadelphia and one in North Carolina.

[...]

The suit alleges the mental health clinics used unqualified stand-ins for psychiatrists and rushed patients through "medication management" visits. Federal prosecutors also say the centers were really run by Martinez, despite being prohibited since 2000 from participating in Medicaid, Medicare or any federally funded health care programs.

The civil action seeks damages and penalties.

[...]

Owners of local mental health clinics face fraud charges

As Reported in the Philadelphia Business Journal

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania filed a civil health care fraud lawsuit Monday, under the False Claims Act, against an Allentown husband and wife and their network of mental health centers funded largely by Medicaid and Medicare.

The lawsuit names Melchor Martinez and Melissa Chlebowski, both of Allentown, as defendants and their businesses: Northeast Community Mental Health Centers in Philadelphia; Lehigh Valley Community Mental Health Centers in Allentown, Easton and Bethlehem; and North Carolina Community Mental Health Centers in Raleigh, N.C.

The complaint notes Martinez was convicted of Medicaid fraud in 2000 and, as a result, was excluded from participating in all federally funded health care programs including Medicaid and Medicare. The exclusion prohibited Martinez from owning, managing or receiving payments from any federally funded health care provider.

The lawsuit alleges that in spite of the exclusion, Martinez, assisted by his wife Chlebowski, continued to own and operate the Northeast and Lehigh Valley clinics, and that, in 2009, while his exclusion was ongoing, he started up the North Carolina clinic in Raleigh.

The complaint also says the clinics billed Medicaid for psychiatrist visits “of very brief duration, sometimes as little as two to three minutes, while fraudulently representing that patients were being seen for a 15 minute visit.”

The Northeast and Lehigh Valley clinics allegedly billed Medicaid and Medicare for the services of “therapists” who were not qualified to provide mental health services, and fraudulently billed Medicare for therapy services allegedly provided without the required supervision.

The complaint did not specify the damages being sought by the government.

The matter was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, with assistance from the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and the North Carolina Department of Justice.

Monroeville psychiatrist charged with billing Medicaid while license suspended

As reported by eTrib Live

A Monroeville psychiatrist accused of Medicaid fraud, theft and delivery of controlled substances had lost his license through Pennsylvania and Ohio suspensions.

The state attorney general's office on Thursday charged Jopindar P. Harika, 61, with more than 100 counts of Medicaid fraud, attempted Medicaid fraud, theft by deception, tampering with public records, delivery of a controlled substance and unlawful prescribing.

“I'm confident that once he has his day in court, we will be able to prevail in these charges,” said Jan Ira Medoff, Harika's attorney. “These are just allegations.”

Harika told a grand jury he was aware his license was suspended for 32 days in 2012 because of unpaid child support in Allegheny County when he is alleged to have seen 565 patients and written prescriptions for at least 453 patients at three mental health agencies in Philadelphia and Berks County.

According to the grand jury presentment, “Harika gave a variety of excuses as to why he continued to practice medicine when he knew that his license was suspended.”

Many of the clients that Harika reported seeing were not billed to Medicaid, but according to the presentment, Harika did bill $59,000 to Medicaid through three agencies: Multicultural Wellness Center in Philadelphia and Reading Behavioral Health Services and Child and Family Support Services in Reading.

The agencies paid him $73,380 in salary.

Administrators from the three facilities said they fired Harika at varying points in 2013.

Multicultural returned $135,000 in fraudulent billing based upon Harika's suspended medical license.

“A doctor's mission should be to provide the best treatment possible for patients, not exploit them to make money,” Attorney General Kathleen Kane said.

Harika is free on $25,000 bond.

According to a report from the State Medical Board of Ohio, Harika's problems began with a 1997 theft charge to which he pleaded guilty. The report stated that Harika billed Somerset State Hospital and Pennsylvania for medical services he did not provide. In 1999, he was sentenced to four years of probation, ordered to pay $84,609 in restitution to Pennsylvania and provide free treatment to mental health patients during the first two years or his probation.

Ohio suspended Harika's license to practice for at least two years; the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine suspended his license for two months, fined him $700 and put him on probation.

Doylestown Psychiatrist Basem Shlewiet Sentenced to Prison for Fondling Patients

As seen in the Doylestown-Buckingham-New Britain Patch

A Doylestown psychiatrist convicted of fondling seven female patients during treatment will serve seven to 17 years in state prison.

Basem Shlewiet, 43, a Buckingham resident, was sentenced Monday by Judge Wallace H. Bateman,

In October, a jury found Shlewiet guilty of 16 of 18 criminal counts, including indecent assault and unlawful conduct with a minor.

Shlewiet was arrested in late 2014 after a nine-month investigation that began when Doylestown Borough Police received reports from women who said they had been touched in a sexual way during treatment at Shlewiet’s North Franklin Street office.

Initially, two of the victims told authorities that Shlewiet touched their breasts and another victim, who was 17 at the time, told authorities he touched her vaginal area. After his arrest, five more victims came forward saying Shlewiet had also inappropriately touched them.

The week-long trial included testimony from former patients, coworkers and character witnesses.

Shlewiet was represented by defense attorney Louis Busico.

Lawsuit against Janssen alleges Risperdal caused gynecomastia

As reported by Healio Psychiatric Annals

Four men have filed separate personal injury lawsuits alleging that an antipsychotic medication was both defective and dangerous following the plaintiffs’ development of gynecomastia, according to a press release.

The complaints stem from patients living in Connecticut, Florida, Maryland and Ohio who claimed the administration of risperidone (Risperdal, Janssen Pharmaceuticals) at a young age led to gynecomastia, according to the release issued by Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP. The litigation was filed in state court in Pennsylvania and also named Johnson & Johnson, parent company to Janssen, as a defendant.

“The bodies of these young men have been permanently mutated by Risperdal,” attorney Wendy R. Fleishman, said in the release. “In a young man who is already isolated by his challenges caused by mental issues, the growth of women’s breasts on his body in adolescent and teenage years is absolutely devastating.

“As alleged in the complaint, Janssen knew Risperdal stimulated male breast development and failed to adequately warn physicians, parents, and the adolescents prescribed Risperdal of this side effect. So when the moms and dads gave their consent to add this prescription for their sons, they knew nothing about the potential horrible harm it could cause.”

Healio Psychiatry contacted Janssen for commentary, but has not received a reply. Check back soon for any further updates

Mount Carmel psychiatrist Andrew Newton pleads guilty to Medicare fraud

As reported on NewsItem.com

A Mount Carmel psychiatrist accused of fraudulently billing Medicare for psychotherapy sessions that didn't happen has pleaded guilty to the charges in federal court Nov. 25.

Dr. Andrew Newton, 42, of Harrisburg, the owner-operator of the Newton Psychiatric Clinic, pleaded guilty to six counts of theft or embezzlement in connection with health care in the Nov. 25 court appearance.

Following the plea, U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson ordered a presentence investigation to be completed by Dec. 23, but Newton's attorneys asked for a continuance, which was granted on Dec. 1. The report must be completed and published on or before Jan. 20, 2015.

Authorities alleged Newton billed Medicare for a face-to-face psychotherapy services with patients in Pennsylvania when Newton was out of the country.

The U.S. Government alleged Newton billed Medicare for three patients Aug. 18, 2010, and for patients Sept. 2 and Sept. 3, 2010, when the doctor was in France, and Nov. 29, 2011, when Newton was in England.

Newton "did knowingly and willfully embezzle, steal and convert to his own use" a total of $322.75 from the fraudulent billing, a past release stated.

A plea agreement reached said Newton will plead guilty to all six of the misdemeanor charges, and the government will not bring any other criminal charges related to the offenses, with the exception of criminal tax charges.

In this case, Newton faces a maximum sentence of six years in prison, a term of supervised release following the imprisonment and a fine.

The plea agreement also states that Newton agrees to make full restitution of $20,000, plus $75,000 payable to the Medicare Trust Fund.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of the Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Williamsport Office.

Psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Newton charged with healthcare fraud

As reported in the Shippensburg News Chronicle on Decenmber 5th, 2014

The United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, announced today that charges have been filed against Andrew Newton, a resident of Harrisburg.

According to United States Attorney, Peter Smith, Dr. Andrew Newton, 42, a psychiatrist with an office in Mount Carmel is charged in a six-count information with false billings for psychotherapy services. Specifically, it is alleged that between August 2010, and November 2011, Newton billed Medicare for face-to-face therapy sessions when he was in fact out of the country.

A former Fogelsville (Pennsylvania) psychiatrist who failed to show up for sentencing this week in his pill-mill case was found dead Thursday afternoon.

From a longer report in the Morning Call

Dr. David Daley, 59, was found along the Susquehanna River just east of the Maynard Street Bridge in Williamsport, Lycoming County Coroner Chuck Kiessling said.

"It appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Kiessling said. He ruled the death a suicide.

Daley was facing the possibility of more than 20 years in a state prison for breaking prescription medication laws and providing drug addicts with easy access to painkillers.

His attorney, Kathryn Roberts, said his family was distraught over the news.

Police had searched for Daley on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. They said he was emotionally unstable and had a revolver. "This is just a tragedy for his family," Roberts said.

[...]

A jury Sept. 26 found Daley guilty of 16 drug-related charges. State sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of 22 to 36 months for most of those counts. Ford could have sentenced Daley separately for each, or run them concurrently, allowing Daley to serve them all at the same time.

[...]

Roberts said she did not know where Daley got the gun. As far as she and his family knew, he did not own a firearm, she said.

During the two-week trial, state Deputy Attorney General Christie Bonesch presented witnesses who said Daley gave them prescriptions without performing physical exams or taking a medical history. In one 11-day period, the prosecutor told the jury, Daley prescribed one patient 1,320 oxycodone pills and 500 tablets of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax.

[...]

Daley was arrested in January 2013 on a recommendation from a statewide grand jury that heard testimony in 2010 and 2011. Prosecutors from the state attorney general's office said the crimes occurred between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 17, 2009, when Daley had a home office at 7729 Main St., Fogelsville.

Daley was initially charged with crimes related to 28 patients. Prosecutors withdrew counts related to 12 patients during the trial, and Daley was convicted on all charges related to the remaining 16.

[...]

Pennsylvania judges accused of jailing kids for cash

As seen in this report

For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.

The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench.

In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.

"I've never encountered, and I don't think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids' lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money," said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre.

Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.

No company officials have been charged, but the investigation is still going on.

This fits into a larger pattern nation wide of sending kids away for "treatment" whenit is really for profit.

The Perils of Industrial Mental Health: Documents were forged, and falsified,

From the Philidelphia Inquirer

The social workers who were supposed to watch over 14-year-old Danieal Kelly didn't do much of anything while she slowly died of starvation and neglect.

But they got very busy after she died, according to a grand-jury report.

The call came Aug. 4, 2006. She'd been found dead, looking like a victim of a concentration camp, with rotting bedsores and weighing 42 pounds.

That afternoon, workers for MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc. scrambled to forge documents to make it look as though they had been visiting the girl and her family, as they were being paid to do by the city's Department of Human Services.

In the months before the girl's horrific death, the workers for MultiEthnic were not the only ones who failed to do their jobs - or to try to cover their tracks afterward - according to the grand-jury report.

"The fate of a sweet and promising child depended on the willingness of a number of particular adults to do the bare minimum of what they were supposed to do," the report says.

". . . Had just one of them performed their duty or done their job, Danieal would be alive today."

The DHS caseworker assigned to the family, Dana Poindexter, ignored warnings that the girl was at grave risk, the report alleges, and later lied to the grand jury to make it appear he had been doing his job.

Months after her death, a homicide detective found the case file - at the bottom of a box filled with food wrappers and dusty unopened letters, some of which were four years old.

Poindexter testified he didn't know that Kelly was entitled to go to school, or that it was against the law for a parent not to provide necessary care. "He must have been asleep during his training," one expert told the grand jury.

Pressed to provide a summary of the case a year before her death, Poindexter wrote an account that the grand jury called "pathetic," "self-serving," and "almost certainly false."

Poindexter, who had been suspended three times for poor performance, testified that he prepared many documents and put them in the Kelly case file.

"The grand jury has no doubt that he never prepared these documents," the report said. He is charged with perjury, along with endangering the welfare of children.

Reached by phone, Poindexter, 51, declined to comment. He was suspended again by DHS yesterday.

Another DHS worker, who did not bother to enter the girl's room during her last visit, backdated her report, the grand-jury report said.

And a supervisor admitted she falsified case records to make it seem that DHS had investigated old neglect reports involving the Kelly family and found them "unsubstantiated." Called to testify, she told grand jurors that was common practice at DHS; she said it was a bureaucratic procedure that helped hasten services to families.

That supervisor, Martha Poller, is still with DHS and recently was given a new job: project manager for a team that will examine child-fatality cases. During a news conference yesterday, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham said she was incredulous that Poller had been entrusted with that new duty.

Poller did not return phone calls yesterday seeking comment.She was not charged.

The 258-page report brims with outrage and fierce criticism of the people involved in Kelly's case - not just of the nine people who were charged, but also the people who ran DHS, the investigators who responded to the death, and even a Public Health Department official who tried to squelch her employees from talking about the case.

The findings in the report echoed, in part, the findings of a DHS review panel that found deep problems at DHS and suggested sweeping reforms.

"What I can tell you is: The internal accountability was weak, and the demand for external accountability from providers was equally weak," said Carol Spigner, the head of the panel.

"When that happens, there are a lot of risks in the system."

The grand-jury report found that the management failures began years ago, before Danieal Kelly even arrived in Philadelphia.

DHS workers complained that MultiEthnic was not visiting families as required and was falsifying records to cover it up.

An investigator for DHS found that the fraud charges were likely true. But the agency wasn't fired. Cheryl Ransom-Garner, who later became DHS director, summoned Mickal Kamuvaka and the other directors of the agency and "read them the riot act," the report said.

Later, a DHS evaluation lauded MultiEthnic for its "energetic" performance, calling it "remarkable." When called before the grand jury, Ransom-Garner said she didn't remember hearing any complaints about the agency - a response the grand jury called "incredible."

Ransom-Garner did not return calls seeking comment. Kamuvaka could not be reached for comment.

These missed chances to check up on MultiEthnic would be repeated again and again, the report found.

The agency's caseworker assigned to the Kelly family, Julius Murray, allegedly visited the home only a few times, and the investigation found no evidence he ever met the child.

In previous cases, Murray and other caseworkers allegedly would have families sign batches of blank forms, attesting to visits that never happened. Murray is charged with doing the same thing in the Kelly case.

The fraud was no aberration - "it was MultiEthnic's modus operandi," the report said.

After the girl's death, the grand jury found, the cover-up kicked into high gear.

A secretary, Vanessa Jackson, was told to come in on her day off on orders from Kamuvaka, "Dr. K." The problem: DHS was coming over for the Kelly family file at 4 p.m., and "Dr. K didn't have much of a file."

She was put to work fabricating notes for home visits that never happened, while another employee sat forging quarterly reports.

"I don't want them to test the notes for the ink to see if they had been written earlier," Jackson quoted Kamuvaka as saying.

They kept a courier from DHS waiting for 20 minutes while they assembled the file.

Like Poindexter, the next DHS worker to get the case, Laura Sommerer, didn't find anything wrong with MultiEthnic's performance. She visited the home June 29 and allegedly saw nothing amiss. She later said she didn't try to speak to the girl.

After the girl died, Sommerer's boss asked her for her report on the June visit; she gave it a day or two later.

But after investigators analyzed her computer, Sommerer admitted she didn't write the report until after the girl died. The grand jury called that "an obvious attempt to cover up her negligence."

During the investigation, the top official in the Health Department also tried to squelch information about the case, the grand jury said.

The doctor who performed the autopsy, Edwin Lieberman, said he was told to keep quiet about the case by Carmen Paris, then the department's acting commissioner.

Edward McCann, who heads the homicide unit for the District Attorney's Office, said that Paris told him it was a miscommunication.

Donald Schwarz, deputy mayor for health, said Paris was suspended pending a hearing today.

In October 2006, after The Inquirer published reports on deaths of other children under DHS supervision, Ransom-Garner at first prepared a counteroffensive - an opinion piece attacking the paper's findings.

She admitted that she didn't bother telling Mayor John F. Street much about the Kelly case "because it wasn't in the press."

But then someone showed Street the photographs of Danieal Kelly. The next morning, on Oct. 20, she was called into the office of Managing Director Pedro Ramos.

"This is the case that is going to take the mayor down," Ransom-Garner quoted him as saying.

There would be no opinion column. Instead, Street fired Ransom-Garner and her top deputy.

Psychiatrist Admits Kissing Patients Stomach

Report from The Times on NJ.com

In tearful testimony yesterday, a 24-year-old patient of a Hamilton psychiatrist said that her doctor had kissed her abdomen with an open mouth and put his hand down her pants.

Dr. Alvaro Argueta, 66, of Yardley, Pa., is charged with one count of criminal sexual contact in the Dec. 7, 2006, incident, said Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Downing.

The woman, a resident of Langhorne, Pa., said she began treatment with Argueta for depression, insomnia and severe headaches after her grandmother, who was also his patient, recommended him. She testified she thought it strange that he kissed her at the end of each visit. She testified that on the day in question, he began to kiss and touch her in inappropriate ways.

"I was frozen," she said. "He kept saying, how beautiful I was."

She testified that at one point he grabbed her face and tried to kiss her but she pulled away.

"Then he went back behind his desk like nothing happened," she said. Argueta handed her some prescriptions and she said she left in a daze.

Before that visit the woman, whose name is being withheld by The Times, bought Argueta a Christmas card and statuette of a saint as a present because he had helped her so much with her headache pain.

She testified that after the incident, she walked out to her car, threw up, then drove away but realized she had not given him the gift. So she returned and handed the gift bag to the receptionist, saying she was in shock and denial.

About a month later, after talking with her parents and grandparents, the woman reported the alleged incident to Hamilton police. The woman played a cell phone message from Argueta for Detective Frederick Moore.

"I spoke with your grandmother and, well, (I am) very sorry for all that happened today and to hear that I don't have any excuse," Argueta said on the message, which was played for the jury.

Working with Mercer County Detective Brian Cottrell, the woman called Argueta back. He was with a patient but returned her call within minutes and that conversation was recorded.

In that phone call, which was played in court, Argueta, who was raised in Guatemala and speaks with an accent, said: "I want to ask you your forgiveness. It was something. I don't have words to express how sorry I have been. Christmas and the holidays have been very, very painful."

He continued, "I'm real sorry that that happened and poor judgment on my part."

Argueta also asked her to forgive him as a Christian.

The woman's 73-year-old grandmother, a Hamilton resident, testified that her granddaughter, who was distraught after the office visit with Argueta, drove to her home for solace.

Argueta also testified yesterday and admitted he kissed the woman's stomach but said it was be cause she told him she was fat. He said he put his hand on her stomach as well, but said he stopped immediately, realizing he had gone beyond normal boundaries.

Argueta said the woman suffered from bipolar disorder, borderline personality and post traumatic stress disorder from an abusive relationship with a boyfriend.

His defense lawyer, Lawrence Popp, told the jury in his opening argument the accuser is "emotionally troubled" and his client had nothing to hide.

"He is a man of intelligence and character," Popp said. "He dedicated his life to the mentally troubled."

Argueta's testimony is expected to continue when the trial, before Superior Court Judge Charles A. Delehey, resumes today.

Disgraced psychiatrist gets jail term for illegal prescriptions

Report via this link

A former psychiatrist from East Stroudsburg has been sentenced to six to 18 months in county jail.

Prosecutors say Harold Pascal illegally prescribed potentially addictive drugs in an overcrowded, poorly run office. Pascal was charged in 2006. He later surrendered his medical license and pleaded no contest to two counts of illegal medical prescriptions and one count of Medicaid fraud.

At Friday's sentencing in Monroe County Court, former co-workers and patients described a different sort of person than prosecutors. They say he was a professional, compassionate doctor who served the community for 26 years.

Earlier Story with photos here, and other information here

Quackbuster Psychiatrist Goes down in Flames

This news/press release is important to people who favor natural cures and treatments vs the use of commercially produced pills and medications. It can be found in several places around the Internet, including, but not limited to:

The Foundation for Health Choice

This originally dates from June, but it is still worthy of passing along. Because of the shakedown schemes that this delicensed Shrink has perpetrated, it needs to be repeated as a warning to others whom he might target as potential targets.

Self proclaimed Quackbuster, Stephen Barrett, MD, recently handed crushing defeats by chiropractor Tedd Koren and Ilena Rosenthal, has announced he is leaving his home town and operating base in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

On June 11th, 2007, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a lower court dismissal of Barrett’s defamation suite against Dr. Koren. Barrett’s case was so lacking in merit the judge blocked it from going to the jury. Barrett simply had no case against Dr. Koren. This followed another stunning defeat last month in California. There an appeals court ordered Barrett and crony Terry Polevoy, MD to post bonds of more than $400,000.00 after they lost a defamation case against Illena Rosenthal virtually identical to the Koren case.

Perhaps the fact that lawyers and judges in Allentown are catching on to his intimidation schemes explains why Barrett is moving to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Barrett can run but he can’t hide. Chapel Hill collection attorneys are already being asked to locate his assets to pay his unmet legal obligations. Assets of other Quackwatch, Inc., principals might also be sought.

Who Is Steven Barrett, What Are Quackbusters?

Steven Barrett is an unlicensed Pennsylvania psychiatrist, who, though he failed his psychiatric boards and has been criticized for his lack of expertise by several courts, still claims to often advise the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the FBI, State Attorneys General, HMOs, Consumer Reports, medical journals and state medical, chiropractic and dental boards.

The insurance industry cites Barrett’s highly opinionated “Quackbuster” attacks to deny paying claims for chiropractic and other natural healthcare.

Barrett and the “Quackbusters,” a vigilante group of self proclaimed skeptics of any medical or health modality that avoids drugs, surgery or radiation, attack almost all non-conventional healthcare practices as quackery. Ignoring all scientific research to the contrary, they dismiss Gulf War Syndrome, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Chemical Sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and dietary supplements as rubbish. Double Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling is on their “quack” hit list along with many well known and respected doctors and scientists, including Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, and dozens of others.

Barrett claims to give over 500 interviews a year to newspapers, magazines, and television shows, including CNN and the Today Show. He claims to have been a peer reviewer for seven medical journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, even though he had no license to practice medicine when he did the reviewing.

The Quackbusters run over 70 websites. Millions of people go to them every year. Look up chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy or even vitamin C, as well as almost every other natural health topic, on the Internet and you (and the public) will be led to Quackbuster sites advising you of natural health “dangers.” In all these forums Barrett and the Quackbusters relentlessly attack the consumer right to informed choice. These activities continue the AMA’s anti-quackery committee’s activities that were struck down by federal courts as an illegal restraint of trade in a landmark lawsuit brought by Illinois chiropractor Chester Wilk. They also help insurance companies deny consumer reimbursement claims.

At the same time, Barrett flacks for products like aspartame (NutraSweet), which is the subject of tens of thousands of consumer complaints. Question (asked on Barrett’s web site): “An email message is being circulated with many statements to the effect that aspartame is dangerous. How worried should I be?” Answer (from Barrett): “Not at all. The message is pure rubbish.”

What Did Dr. Koren Do to Provoke Barrett’s Shakedown?

Dr. Tedd Koren is a well-known chiropractor, researcher, writer and lecturer. Barrett sued Dr. Koren in 2003 for calling him a Quackpot, saying he was in big trouble because of a racketeering law suit brought against him and attacking his lack of a medical license in his internet newsletter.

The trial judge and three appeals judges agreed unanimously that these statements were so far from defamation that no jury could be legally allowed to call them defamation. Dr. Koren also said Barrett was “delicensed.” One of the three appeals courts judges thought a jury might be able to find this to be defamation. However two appellate judges disagreed and jurors interviewed after the trial said they too saw through Barrett and felt that he was a litigious, ungrounded and biased denier of the truth.

In part jurors formed this view because Barrett testified with great self-satisfaction in the Koren case that he had sued many doctors-close to forty-in similar cases, demanding up to $100,000 if they wished to avoid a costly lawsuit. Some paid-how many is yet to be discovered. Drs. Koren and Rosenthal and a few others did not. Barrett has failed to win a single lawsuit in this shakedown scheme.

Dr. Koren’s Legal Team

Well known consumer advocate, James S. (Jim) Turner, general counsel to Koren Publications, who several years earlier had persuaded the FTC to drop an investigation against Dr. Koren (brought at a time when Barrett was a consultant to the FTC), organized and coordinated the legal team that represented Dr. Koren. Attorney Christopher Reid of Allentown, Pennsylvania acted as associate trial counsel and appellate counsel and California health freedom attorney Carlos Negrete acted as trial counsel.,

Mr. Negrete said, “Fortunately for all of his colleagues, Dr. Koren decided not to back down and took the case to trial. Barrett is part of a group of intolerant individuals. I am not certain who the supporters of the so-called Quackbusters are, but they seem to me to be just skinheads with stethoscopes.”

During heated and often dramatic courtroom proceedings, Mr. Negrete pointed out many of the questionable statements Barrett includes on his websites attacking chiropractic, as well as facts about Barrett’s own credentials that shocked even his supporters.

Mr. Turner says, “It is very important that a very responsible judge in Barrett’s hometown recognized that he was making false allegations and dismissed the case. Barrett has cost untoward numbers of consumers pain, anguish and probably serious harm by his misrepresentation of the facts about subjects ranging from acupuncture to zinc.”

Mr. Turner, who among other campaigns led the team that got acupuncture needles approved as safe by FDA, worked with a Senate committee to abolish the dysfunctional vaccine regulatory agency, worked with whistleblowers to stop the Swine Flu inoculation campaign, kept aspartame off the market for ten years, and played a key role in lobbying the Organic Food Production Act through Congress (all areas on which the Foundation for Health Choice focuses), says, “Our objective is to end Barrett’s abuse of consumers by eliminating the false and misleading information from his website and his entire network of websites and replacing it with sound, useful information for consumers.”

Says Dr. Koren, “This is just the beginning. Just as the FTC battle was not about Tedd Koren alone but had ramifications for the entire chiropractic and natural health professions so the Barrett v. Koren battle will have major ramifications for all. We’re going to give the Quackbusters a taste of their own medicine. They’ll learn how dangerous medicine can be.”

“Our mission is not just about revealing the Quackbusters to be the unscientific bigots that they are. We are fighting for health care freedom. One of our goals is to permit parents to make sound decisions about vaccination for their children. There are too many sound health reasons for certain children to avoid vaccination and the government has recognized too many vaccine caused deaths and maimings (over $1.5 billion of compensation has been paid to bereaved families by the federal vaccine injury compensation system since 1988) to allow a non-vaccinated child to be refused day care, school, college, or employment,” says Dr. Koren.

Mr. Turner is also lead counsel in a case brought against Barrett by Dr. Don Harrison, the chiropractor who founded and leads Chiropractic Biophysics.

Methadone Clinics Can Be Liable for Corporate Negligence

As reported here

A press release announces a landmark ruling by a Pennsylvania Court on Monday. A Blair County Common Pleas Court judge has ruled that methadone clinics can be liable for corporate negligence, just like hospitals. This is believed to be the first ruling of its kind in Pennsylvania.

The ruling comes as a result of a lawsuit brought before the court in 2004 against a private for-profit methadone clinic in Pennsylvania, a hospital, and a psychiatrist. The estate of Crystal M. Ickes filed this suit with the court. Crystal M. Ickes was a single mother of three who died in a car crash shortly after leaving Alliance Medical Services, Inc., a methadone clinic in Johnstown, PA. Crystal was returning home after her visit to the clinic, a journey of 46 miles back to her home in neighboring Altoona, PA.

Less than an hour after receiving the methadone dose, the car Ickes was driving crossed a median strip and struck a car operated by Matthew Stever, who suffered head injuries resulting in permanent neurological damage.

The Ickes complaint states that the combination of methadone, anti-depressants, and sleeping pills had impaired her ability to drive safely. The complaint states that she must have either suffered a seizure or fallen asleep at the wheel. This conclusion is supported by the fact that her car left no skid marks during this incident.

Judge Hiram A. Carpenter stated in this opinion, "For purposes of corporate liability, Alliance clearly meets the criteria of a healthcare provider." Alliance attorneys cited a Superior Court decision in Shannon v. McNulty, a lawsuit against an HMO. This case concluded that corporate liability is inapplicable to facilities that deal with limited aspects of a patient's care. Hospitals, on the other hand, provide a total healthcare approach to their patients.

The judge disagreed, however, and argued that the defendants' reliance on Shannon was "misplaced." The judge cited another case, Thomson v. Nason, where the Pennsylvania Supreme Court revealed a two-prong corporate liability test that the judge felt was met in the Ickes case.

The judge wrote in the opinion, "First, Plaintiff alleges that Alliance knew that its policies were ineffective in protecting the safety of its patients, yet failed to correct them. Plaintiff additionally alleges that failure resulted in Ms. Ickes being allowed to leave the facility to operate a vehicle in an overly-sedated state, causing her injuries."

This case is a landmark case as far as corporate negligence for healthcare providers goes. Other cases involving injuries suffered and inflicted by patients undergoing treatment at methadone clinics have come forth recently. With this decision by the Pennsylvania court today, we will have to see if the methadone clinics take extra precautions when treating their patients.

Man gets 7-30 years for abusing baby - was on psych drugs at the time

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette

A man who claimed he was mentally ill when he abused his newborn -- breaking her leg, smashing her head into a sink and shocking her with a cattle prod -- will spend up to 30 years in prison.

Brandon Alan Austill, 21, of Somerset, was sentenced Tuesday to 7 to 30 years in prison for abuse that started when his daughter was just 4 days old.

``It is clear from the facts in this case that you systematically tortured this child over six weeks,'' Somerset County Judge John M. Cascio said.

According to authorities, Mr. Austill admitted he smashed the infant's head into a sink and table, twice used an electric prod on her when she wouldn't stop crying and bent her leg over his shoulder until he heard it snap. The abuse took place last fall.

``I'll never be able to take that back. I'll always love my daughter,'' Mr. Austill said. ``There's no way I can make an excuse for what happened.''

Mr. Austill pleaded guilty but mentally ill in May to aggravated assault, child endangerment and other offenses. He said he was taking antidepressants and anti-hallucinogens at the time.

Mr. Austill suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from abuse he suffered as a child, along with bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia, psychologist Frank Schmidt testified. He will receive psychiatric care in prison.

``Certainly, this is your chance and this is probably your last chance,'' Judge Cascio said.

The child's mother has not been charged. It was not immediately known if the girl remains in foster care or has been returned to her mother.

Doctor wantonly doled prescriptions, police say

From The Morning Call Online

A Monroe County doctor and psychologist was charged Monday with improperly prescribing and distributing powerful and potentially addictive drugs.

Harold Pascal, 71, of 5007 Poole Road, Smithfield Township, repeatedly prescribed drugs such as Adderall, a stimulant, and Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, without reviewing a patient's medical history or providing treatment, according to the state attorney general's office.

'We allege that these appointments were strictly for the purpose of providing a prescription,'' said Nils Frederiksen, deputy press secretary for Attorney General Tom Corbett.

Corbett said that Pascal is charged with four counts of prescribing or delivering controlled substances outside the scope of accepted medical treatment principles, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Pascal is also charged with three counts of Medicaid fraud, a third-degree felony punishable by up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

The charges followed a 15-month investigation during which agents from the attorney general's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation say they received 27 prescriptions from Pascal. The agents presented evidence to a statewide grand jury, which recommended the charges.

District Judge Michael Muth of East Stroudsburg released Pascal on $25,000 unsecured bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday.

In addition, the attorney general's office is taking steps to seize Pascal's East Stroudsburg office, a checking account and a safe deposit box. Pascal also has an office in Lehighton, but spends most of his time in East Stroudsburg, Frederiksen said.

Pascal could not be reached for comment.

The investigation was prompted by reports from a confidential informant who complained of family members being overmedicated. Pascal had been chosen for one of the family members by a school district, the grand jury said. Frederiksen said he didn't know which one.

According to the grand jury:

Pascal asked the undercover agents what they wanted, then wrote prescriptions for the drugs.

The agents said they openly discussed his prescription writing habits with him. They said the doctor was aware the drugs he was prescribing were addictive, and that he knew of reports that patients were selling them on the street.

Patients who gathered in Pascal's waiting room often spoke openly about their addictions and advised the agents to compile a list of drugs they wanted from the doctor.

Though his office was open only a few hours each week, he would frequently see up to 60 patients a day. He met them in a room that had no medical furniture or examination equipment.

Attention woes addressed without use of medication

Several points:

1. It's wonderful that more people are looking at non drug options for this 'condition'
   
2. There is still a major issue to what is the actual condition that is being treated.
   
3. So much of this disease lies in the realm of being 'socially defined', in the sense that it is behavior that is not acceptable to the current run of the mill teacher, who does not have the time or energy to deal with these kids.
   
4. God forbid that the condition, like autism, should be found to be a side effect of some common aspect of modern life. Like Television.

As seen here.

"She's been having problems with staying focused," said her mom, Nancy Lewis of Marysville.

The school, Bible Baptist in Shiremanstown, didn't seem like an issue. It doesn't have a disruptive atmosphere.

So it came back to the 12-year-old and what is often described as Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder _ a persistent pattern of abnormally high levels of activity, impulsiveness or inattention. The answer is usually Ritalin.

Nancy Lewis thought there might be a better way.

So twice a week, Sierra straps on a bike helmet that measures brain waves, and she works with video games that challenge her to pay attention.

"Kids who really have attention problems, they don't know what it feels like to pay attention," said G. David Smith, psychologist and president of Riverside Associates on Green Street, where Sierra has been going since July. "We teach them self-awareness and self-management, and not to be dependent on medication or on other people."

Smith and behavior specialist Katie Manning use the video software to teach their clients focusing skills, which the children can then transfer to the classroom and elsewhere.

To be nice, they call the video software a game.

"Play Attention" is a virtual reality system with a helmet attached to a computer. It's a difficult reality. Some of the games don't start until the helmet registers the brain waves that indicate the child is paying attention.

"The system projects that on a screen so kids can see when they hit it, and then use that as a way to get themselves in gear," Smith said.

The training techniques were developed by researchers working with brain injuries, particularly those of the frontal lobe, which Smith says mimics ADHD.

"These injuries produce problems in what are called executive functions, which have to do with planning, understanding cause-and-effect relationships and withholding the impulse to act," he said.

The video training teaches the children to focus on a shape as it moves around the video screen, for instance. It also helps them control their impulses by requiring the child to respond with a click of a button to certain images.

During the video sessions, Manning notes disruptive behaviors on a checklist and programs them into the virtual reality system to show how fidgeting or looking around the room interferes with the ability to focus.

The skills are eventually applied to real situations such as doing homework.

"We try to incorporate the school as much as possible," Manning said.

They also imitate home situations, which will help the children apply the acquired skills when their parents give them instructions to do something

"We never ask a kid to do something we think he can't do. It's almost like lifting weights. You get the kid lifting comfortably, then you add a pound. Not 10," Smith said. "The idea is to teach the kids that they can do this and they can use these skills, and generalize these skills."

These days, Sierra Lewis is able to ignore the chatter of her classmates and ambient noise that used to bother her. Her report cards are improving.

"We thought we'd try this program and see if it would help her to concentrate," her mother said. "I think it has. She does very well with the program."

The Riverside training system is currently working with about eight children, and it has worked with 20 or so in the past six years.

Smith is authorized to provide the treatment to children on Medicaid. Otherwise, the program costs $55 a session or $2,600 for the course.

"Insurance companies won't pay," Smith said. "They'd rather pay for medication."

Pennsylvania State AG investigating East Stroudsburg doctor

As Reported in the Pocono Record News

The state attorney general is investigating Dr. Harold J. Pascal, a psychologist with a practice in East Stroudsburg.

Pascal's office was searched recently for illegal drugs or signs of drug-related activity, according to court records.

Pascal has closed his practice, leaving patients with only a signed note on the door that says, "Please go to the emergency room or RedCo for treatment."

The closing follows a hearing in Monroe County court last week at which an attorney for Pascal requested the return of items seized in a law enforcement search of the doctor's office.

The record of the hearing has been sealed. A decision is expected later this week.

Pascal, saying he is retiring, resigned recently as the doctor who does psychiatric evaluations for the Stroudsburg Area School District.

Pascal's office is at 233 E. Brown St. [...]

School Psychiatrist suspended for display of male genitalia

Gateway School District psychologist Dan Pezzulo has been suspended for displaying a photo of male genitalia during a staff meeting presentation. Stephanie Hogue, mother of seven and president of the Moss Side Middle School Family-Teacher Association, said teachers and parents who talked to her about the incident were appalled.

He has said that "I'll let my performance evaluations and my character speak for me"

In an ironic twist, Pezzulo also hosts a segment on the local cable television channel called "Tips From Dr. Dan." The segments feature messages to youths. In one segment, Pezzulo used street signs to emphasize making smart choices. The "stop sign" urged students to stop and think before making decisions that could impact the rest of their lives.

Psychologist faces third sex assault charge

A suspended Pittsburgh Public Schools psychologist already awaiting trial for two separate sex assault cases was arrested again Tuesday night on charges stemming from a third sexual assault. Donald Stettner, 47, of Spring Hill, was arrested on charges of indecent assault, endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of minors for allegations involving a girl who is now a teenager, investigators said. A handicapped girl Stettner once considered adopting has accused him of molesting her. UpdateSee also this story on the more recent charges.