Medicaid

Miami Therapist Gets Nine Years For His Role In $63 Million Medicare Scam

In the capital of medicare fraud, Miami therapist Paul Thomas Layman and his cohorts pulled off a doozy of a heist, stealing $63 million from the federal government through bogus mental health services. Now Layman will spend the next nine years in federal prison following his sentencing hearing yest ... More >>

South Florida Is Ground Zero for Medicare Fraud

Food Stamp Debacle: Meet the One Governor Who Botched Public Aid Worse Than Rick Scott

Ah, government. It protects and serves. Floridians spent last year lamenting Gov. Rick Scott's bright idea for welfare recipients: a ludicrous plan to drug-test every single person on state aid. (The courts later threw that idea out the window.)Believe it or not, there's now a governor whose food st ... More >>

Luke's Gospel: Obamacare Is as American as Apple Pie and Free Speech

Obamacare Ruled Constitutional By Supreme Court; Sorry, Pam Bondi

In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court has upheld President Obama's health care mandate, with Chief Justice John Roberts casting the surprising, deciding vote that the sweeping reform is constitutional. The ruling is a blow to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who spearheaded the first national court ch ... More >>

Obamacare Is American As Apple Pie and Free Speech

Luther Campbell, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. Today, Luke weighs in on Obamacare. As someone who's knows what it's like to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, I'm very happy for ... More >>

Ronald Poppo's Gotten $75,000 In Donations; Here's How To Give Without The Middleman Taking 10 Percent

Ronald Poppo, the homeless victim of the face-eating attack, faces a long and expensive road towards recovery. But the international interest in the gruesome event has an upside: To date, around 2,000 Samaritans have donated approximately $75,000 to go to his medical care. We got that figure from La ... More >>

New York City Plans Ban on All Large Sodas and Sugary Drinks; Miami Should Be Next

In a monumental strike against the obesity epidemic, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced plans for a city-wide ban on all sugary soft drinks larger than 16 ounces during an interview in the Governor's Room at City Hall yesterday.The proposed ban would affect most enterprises that pedd ... More >>

Old Florida Law Says Sun Life Stadium, American Airlines Arena Should Be Homeless Shelters

​Twenty years ago, the state government passed a law that sounded good on a very simple, surface level: all sports facilities that receive public funding must be used as homeless shelters when not in use. Of course, since the law went into effect not a single arena or stadium in the state has been ... More >>

Robert's Drug Store busted for illegal oxycodone at Government Center

Aiman Aryan, Accused Of Slinging Oxy, Ran Pharmacy In Downtown Government Center

photo by Daniel Christensen via Wikimedia CommonsCounty Hall, oxy central?​In true South Florida fashion, a pill mill that trafficked thousands of illegal oxycodone tablets was operating right in the heart of Miami-Dade County government, the feds say.Recent charges filed against Robert's Drug Sto ... More >>

Rick Scott's dirtiest deeds

Marco Rubio and the Grand Old Party Are a "Hot, Sloppy Mess"

A hot, sloppy mess. And Nicki Minaj.​The Riptide national politics desk has been working around the clock to bring you this shocking revelation: Some Democrats suspect the Republican Party is crazy."I think Mitch McConnell, frankly, has lost his mind," said Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Miss ... More >>

Log Cabin Nursery, Miami Beach Haven For Developmentally Disabled, To Close Due to State Cuts

​ We knew that Tallahassee's recent $500-million-plus slashing to Medicaid reimbursements would have some pretty dire consequences. Unfortunately, a 35-year-old Miami Beach institution that serves as a second home for dozens of developmentally disabled adults is acting as the canary in the c ... More >>

Rick Scott's Budget is Tea Stained

​Despite that whole separation of church and state thing and calls to tone down partisan political rhetoric, Rick Scott introduced his first budget as governor today at a Tea Party rally in a church in small town Eustis, Florida. The rally took on a defiantly partisan affair as Tea Partiers had al ... More >>

Election Day Recap: A Real Life Montgomery Burns Poised to Lead Florida

Florida's new governor: Rick Scott​Watching last night's election results pour in, Banana Republican could only take solace that Dorrin Rolle is no longer a Miami-Dade County commissioner and that state legislators will no longer have the ability to draw their own districts. Other than that, the 2 ... More >>

Daphne Campbell: Big debts, shady dealings

An Immigrant's Heart: To survive the ordeal of escaping Guatemala, Julia Amparo-Alvarado needed a big heart — but not this big

Nude Dude Goes for a Stroll Down Biscayne Boulevard

via Local 10​Last week we took up the very pressing issue of female toplessness on Miami Beach streets, but today we realize the flaw in any sort of non-beach public nudity: the traffic concerns.Local 10 reports that a completely nude man was spotted walking down Biscayne Boulevard right in front ... More >>

Fox News Wonders if Local Mom Battling Leukemia is "First 'Death Panel' Victim"

​In the News Roundup each morning we've been keeping an eye on the plight of Diana Smith, a local mother battling a rare form of leukemia. Smith was almost denied a life saving treatment when Social Security disability payments made to her son raised her income enough to where she no longer qualif ... More >>

Intoxicated Mother Tased and Arrested for Beating Baby

If there are any great truths in this crazy world of ours, things that most of humanity can agree upon, one of them is that babies are for hugging and kissing, not beating. Sadly a mother in Homestead has been arrested for severely beating her 7-month-old child.The incident happened last night, arou ... More >>

Alex Sink's Confusing Response to Health-Care Reform

​We've had a hard time figuring out where presumptive gubernatorial nominee Alex Sink lies on the Democratic Party's spectrum.Is she a dyed-in-the-wool, bleeding-heart liberal? Eh, probably not.Is she a staunch Blue Dog? Doesn't quite seem like it.Is she, like so many Florida politicians, a cautio ... More >>

As Baby-in-a-Garbage Bag Trial Begins, Disgraced Doctor is Still Practicing

You can bet there'll be plenty of riled up, sign-waving pro-lifers outside the Miami-Dade courthouse Friday. One of the country's most gripping abortion trials will begin at 9 a.m. And Riptide has some new info to add to an old case. Back in 2006, an 18-year-old mother named Scyloria Williams went t ... More >>

Who Was That Mugged Man?

A guy who claims he was shot by fake cops has an extremely dubious history.

News Roundup

Ben Novak, murdered prince of the Fontainebleau, once claimed his wife tried to have him killed. They got back together, though, but now he is mysteriously dead. [Herald]Three Miami residents are accused of buying pills from Medicaid patients and then selling them out of state. [SunSent]The teen w ... More >>

Get Drunk, Fight Cancer

¡MAYDAY!, ¡Suénalo!, DJ Le Spam and More Perform for Charity at Transit Lounge April 25

Steven Guarin needs a bone marrow transplant. He has cancer and stupid Medicaid won't cover it. The situation sucks, but his friends in the Miami music scene are doing something about it. They've already gotten a $1,500 donation from Music Cares, the charity foundation set up by the Recording Ac ... More >>

Dems' "Empty Chair Charlie" Strategy Is Empty-Headed

Florida Dems, let us share a bit of well-known advice that helped your national party unseat a seemingly unbeatable Republican incumbent back in '92: It's the economy, stupid. After re-electing party chairwoman Karen Thurman this weekend, the state Democrats vowed to continue their crusade again ... More >>

State Looking to Make Cuts in Medicaid

So the brain trust up in Tallahassee has found itself with a $2 billion hole in the budget (yeah, yeah, financial crisis; more like yeah, yeah overzealous tax cuts), and one of the areas they're looking to make cuts in is Medicaid, which provides healthcare to the state's poorest citizens, according ... More >>

Forecasts for Florida's Economy Are Bleak, Folks

There needs to be some kind of drinking game tied to breaking news alerts that tell us how grim our financial futures are. It began this morning on the Herald’s website with the news that employment in Florida is at a 15-year high and that it could get worse by next summer. In related news, a ... More >>

Local Conservatives Think Conservatives Weren't Conservative Enough

Protestors Agitate Outside Rubio's Empty Office

Letters from the Issue of September 22, 2005

Suicide notes, psycho-babble, and skeptical readers

The Toxic Pharmacy

A prominent couple's life unravels amid fraud charges and an arson investigation

Gang Related

Mass transit trouble and coked-up greyhounds

Letters from the Issue of April 1, 2004

Foul-mouthed writers, fully trained midwives, and bunched-up panties

Letters from the Issue of March 18, 2004

Civic demons, bad dentistry, and hip-hop culture crash

Cavity Depravity

The rotten roots of a sweet HMO deal rip dental health from the mouths of babes

Special Treatment at Jackson

Miami medical bureaucracy begins to rival the school system

Don't Tell, Don't Ask

A teenager born with HIV was never told of her status until it was too late. How this happened, and why, is now a matter of national debate.

The Enigma

The new chairman of the Miami-Dade delegation sets his own course in Tallahassee

Home Is Where the Hurt Is

Bedsores. Medical neglect. Depression. Welcome to the bleak underworld of Miami-Dade's assisted-living facilities.

Orphans of the State

For countless undocumented immigrant kids, America is not the land of puppies and Disney trips, but the land of neglect

The New Dealers

They're poor, black, and HIV-positive. Their product? The AIDS medications intended to cure them.

Prestige Politics

News of the Weird

Clinical Depression

Hounded by budget crises, unflattering audits, and general gripes about management, the Economic Opportunity Family Health Center circles the wagons

Let the Sunshine In

Carnival of Fraud

Step right up and be astounded by Miami's bizarre side show of Medicare and Medicaid scammers! After all, you're paying for it!

Death and Profits

When Hugh Westbrook pioneered hospice care, his organization saw to the needs of the dying. Fifteen years later nothing has changed -- except the politics and the profit margins.