It's time for this week's edition of Investigative Roundup, gathering some of the best investigative reporting on healthcare from around the country.
"Party House" Rehab?
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Jason Gerner, co-founder of drug treatment company Liberation Way, and 10 others were charged in a by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office.
Findings from a grand jury charged with investigating Liberation Way paint a grim picture of the treatment company. According to their report, the company's facilities that housed those seeking treatment were a "revolving door" operation seemingly made to make them relapse.
The grand jury specifically found that sober homes affiliated with Liberation Way were poorly operated and that patients were led to believe they had to use these houses even though Liberation Way was not registered as an inpatient facility. So-called sober homes were places known for "nefarious activity," including employees engaging in sex acts with patients. One home was known as "the party house."
The grand jury found that payments for Liberation Way were fraudulently obtained by the company. Liberation Way would buy premium platinum insurance plans for clients, which allowed them to bill millions in out-of-network reimbursements for substandard care. Liberation Way operators were also charged in a kickback scheme with a lab in Florida.
Jennifer Williams, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern Division of Pennsylvania, called the operation "an empire built on fraud and despair." The Inquirer's attempts to reach defendants in the case were unsuccessful.
From Whistleblower to Millionaire
Duke University is paying $112.5 million to settle complaints that researchers used made-up data to obtain federal grant money, and Joseph Thomas, the whistleblower whose lawsuit brought attention to Duke's alleged research fraud, is getting a big payout -- , NPR reports.
Thomas's lawsuit charged Duke with submitting falsified research data for 12 years to federal agencies who were paying grant money. The suit specifically alleged that Erin Potts-Kant, the pulmonary division's former clinical research coordinator, "engaged in systematic and near-universal research fraud in lieu of actually performing experiments."
This fudged researched was used in 38 articles cited in 417 other articles at the time the lawsuit was filed. Potts-Kant was fired for embezzling money, Duke said. The Justice Department noted that the settlement does not mean Duke has been determined liable.
Rhode Island's 911 Needs CPR
The Public's Radio and ProPublica examined and found training, communication with callers, and supervision of the system by doctors were lacking.
In particular, operators apparently weren't trained in giving instructions on CPR over the phone, leading to mishandled cases and at least one infant's death.
Nevertheless, public safety officials support the way the system is structured. However, the 911 center's acting director was recently removed from his job for training staff with an expired certification. Lawmakers hope to remedy the situation with legislation that would require operators to be trained in telephone CPR.
$158 Million in Hospital Payments Questioned
A new report from the New Jersey Commission of Investigation was critical of New Jersey's DOH's financial oversight. As an example of this oversight, the report delves into the complex financial structure and iffy but not illegal payments of three of CarePoint Health's three hospitals in the state. Officials say that owners -- Vivek Garipalli, James Lawler, and Jeffrey Mandler -- took over , reported Northjersey.com.
The 2-year investigation was sparked in part by a report from a union representing nurses in CarePoint Health's Bayonne Medical Center -- a hospital known for having some of the highest prices for routine ER visits -- who were curious about $96 million they said was transferred to the hospital's parent company.
Officials found that the hospitals paid management companies that had no employees $157 million from 2013 to 2016. Bayonne Medical Center also wired $5,000 weekly to trusts controlled by Lawler and Mandler and $10,000 to Garipalli, according to the report. There were also creative spins on profit reporting, too, with profit margins many times larger than what its financial records showed.
Notably, the report did not suggest any of this was illegal; in fact, it commended the hospitals' owners for rescuing them from bankruptcy and allowing them to serve their communities.