Fred Schulte of Kaiser Health News reports that Donald Trump, on his way out of office, granted pardons or commutations to several Medicare fraudsters. Many of these convicts were serving long jail sentences for major crimes. Who knows what Trump received in exchange for giving these serious criminals their freedom back.
One man was allegedly responsible for thousands of questionable spinal surgeries. Another man allegedly ripped off Medicare and Medicaid to the tune of $1 billion taken from senior care facilities. All of those pardoned put the lives of vulnerable older adults at risk and ripped off taxpayers.
Trump said that Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida supported his decision to pardon Salomon Melgen. Melgen was an eye doctor in Florida convicted of defrauding the government of $100 million. He was charged with giving unnecessary treatments to his patients and compromising their health. Trump’s stated rationale: “Numerous patients and friends testify to his generosity in treating all patients, especially those unable to pay or unable to afford healthcare insurance.”
Trump also pardoned a former doctor and who was an owner of Pacific Hospital of Long Beach, serving a 15-month prison sentence. He was found to have been paying thousands of dollars in kickbacks to doctors who sent patients to Pacific Hospital of Long Beach for unnecessary surgeries.
Sholam Weiss received a pardon from Trump. He was sentenced to 835 years in federal prison for what some say is the longest sentence every for racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Trump said that time served–18 years of prison–was enough.
Trump pardoned John Davis for his crime of accepting over three-quarters of a million dollars in illegal bribes linked to fraudulent Medicare bills of $4.6 million. In Trump’s view, the former CEO of Comprehensive Pain Specialists, a chain of pain management clinics in Tennessee, committed a single crime that did not lead anyone to suffer financially. He belonged home with his three young children after serving four months in jail.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- CVS charged with healthcare fraud
- Coronavirus: Watch out for Medicare fraud
- Justice Department sues Anthem for Medicare Advantage fraud
- Corporate health insurers profit by condoning fraud
- CVS Caremark accused of $1 billion in Medicare drug fraud
…the Man Child was a disaster for this nation. Pardons should only be given to those who were wrongfully charged or convicted. To pardon these individuals only further illustrates his lack of compassion and concern for the most vulnerable citizens. These criminals have hurt the programme and driven up costs for everyone else.
His pardoning of known criminals and fraudsters is also a testament to a criminal regime that he ran as well as his own criminal past. I cannot wait until the SDNY AG has him extradites from Florida to face the consequences of his criminal actions in New York (he won’t get a pardon for that). Also hoping that 12 more Republican Senators realise him for the poisonous individual he is and vote to convict him for incitement and sedition which he is definitely been guilty of, not just in the waning weeks of his term but all throughout the last four years and even beforehand when he openly encouraged his supporters to use violence against those who protested against him during campaign rallies.
I wish Biden could have signed an executive order to dismiss his pardons. It is scary that he knows all our strengths, weaknesses and secrets. I don’t trust him any further than I could throw him. He would probably sell us out to the highest bidder! Unfortunately he still has power.