Medicare

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 >>

Reader Mail: Medicare Fraud Will Become America's Biggest Scam

South Florida Is Ground Zero for Medicare Fraud

Ex-Cocaine Trafficker Sentenced to 14 Years For Medicare Fraud

A former drug trafficker who found a lucrative career in Medicare fraud shortly after his release from prison is getting another 14 years in the slammer. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga sentenced Armando "Mandy" Gonzalez for orchestrating a $63 million Medicare scam between 2004 ... More >>

The Daily Show Slams Marco Rubio's SOTU Response

Another reason why being chosen to give the State of the Union rebuttal is a thankless task: You're guaranteed to get made fun of on The Daily Show.Or as Jon Stewart put it last night, "The State of the Union rebuttal is most often handed to a rising party star, whose star, according to tradition, q ... More >>

Florida Romney Volunteer Calling Up Seniors to Inform Them Obama is a Socialist Muslim

A Florida Republican volunteer has been caught on tape calling up senior citizen voters on behalf of Mitt Romney and telling them that President Barack Obama is a secret muslim who wants to take away their Medicare. The woman was making the call on behalf of the Clay County GOP, but the local party ... More >>

State Rep. Daphne Campbell's Former Secretary Arrested For Defrauding Her Haitian American Constituents

There's a reason we picked Daphne Campbell as the worst candidate on the August 14 Primary ballot. Even though she got reelected, Campbell can't escape scandals. The latest involves one of her former employees swindling Haitian American constituents who went to Campbell's Miami Shores district offic ... More >>

Gov. Rick Scott's Old Health Care Firm Faces Federal Probe For Unnecessary Heart Surgeries

What's the most despicable way you can imagine a hospital chain trying to make extra cash? Short of kidnapping people to harvest their organs, it might be performing loads of unnecessary heart surgeries, putting patients at serious risk of death. That's exactly what HCA, the hospital chain founded b ... More >>

"Obamacare" Has Already Saved Floridians $142 Million

​Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi may be fighting to repeal President Obama's healthcare reform laws in court, but the new laws have already saved Floridians close to $142 million, and most of the laws haven't even gone into effect yet. The savings come from Medicare recipients who now pay l ... More >>

David Rivera Accused of Abusing Congressional Privilege With Medicare Mailer

Rivera's taxpayer funded flier​One of the perks in Congress is the right of "franking" -- no, it has nothing to do with Barney Frank, tequila shots and a dark alley. It's the ancient right to send constituents heaps of unwanted glossy fliers plastered with your grinning face at taxpayer expense. F ... More >>

SoFla Clinics Suckered Out-of-State Medicare Patients With Mental & Drug Problems

US Attorney General Eric HolderSouth Florida can add another feather to its fraud cap: scummiest Medicare scammers in the U.S.​​SoFla has long been the anus epicenter of health care fraud (see Rick Scott and Columbia/HCA). So it's no surprise that when prosecutors announced charges today ag ... More >>

Letters from the issue of July 21, 2011

Allen West Finds Deep End, Goes Off It, References Slavery

​And now, another update on the strange public ramblings of the Republican from Broward, Congressman Allen West. He took his crazytalk on the road yesterday, upgrading from hateful, bullying emails to a few thousand watts of radio power on Mark Levin's show.He said liberals were threatened by him ... More >>

Allen West Tells Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz to "Shut the Heck Up"

​Republican Congressman Allen West, everyone's favorite Iraqi-torturing politician from the 22nd district, has given us another lesson in the statesmanship he holds so dear.West sent an email to fellow Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz late yesterday after she made remarks on the House floor th ... More >>

Is Rick Scott America's Worst Governor?

Rick Scott: Florida's Sith overlord.​Clearly, Rick Scott is America's least popular governor. His numbers are so low that if he were a baseball player, his manager would have long ago slapped his ass and demoted him to AA. He's more politically radioactive than Anthony Weiner's twitter account. Th ... More >>

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 >>

Marco Rubio tricked the Tea Party into thinking he was part of the clan

Marco Rubio Tricked The Tea Party

​Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness once made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke reassesses Sen. Marco Rubio's Tea Party credentials.I need to thank Marco Rubio. He really stuck it to the Tea Party. He ... More >>

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree: Rep. Daphne Campbell's Son Charged with Medicare Fraud

​Back in December, New Times reported the long and shady past of newly elected state Rep. Daphne Campbell's questionable dealings while running group homes for adults who need special care. Now her son, 28-year-old Gregory Campbell, has been charged with Medicare fraud for allegedly bill ... More >>

Winners, Medicare Recipients, and the Grandaddy Rapper at Senior Idol Talent Show

Winner of Senior Idol, Josephine Dolce.​​Lenny, an old guy with sparkling bling who calls himself "The Granddaddy Rapper," presented a flawless a cappella rendition of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back," riding onstage atop a Rascal electric wheelchair. Marlene Jenkins only started singing six ye ... More >>

Allen West, uncut

A candid conversation with South Florida's rising Tea Party star.

Miami's dirty dozen of 2010

Rick Scott: Dirty Dozen 2010

​Each year, New Times puts together a list of the sketchiest politicians and unholiest celebrities and weirdest human beings to call the Magic City home. So who made the filthy cut this year? We're releasing the names one by one ahead of next week's issue, which comes with a full-page illustratio ... 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 >>

American Therapeutic Corp. Charged with Fleecing Medicare out of $200m By Using Dementia Patients

Bad doctors, bad. ​Miami has long been the country's capitol for Medicare fraud schemes, and today federal authorities arrested four people associated with American Therapeutic Corporation and charged the Miami-based company with fleecing $200 million from Medicare. The company is accused of preyi ... More >>

Five candidates you want to vote against

Hall of Shame: Five Candidates You Want to Vote Against

​With the primary election less than a month away, Riptide is doing its civic duty by letting readers know about the five worst candidates running in local, state, and federal races. A vote for these jokers is just another leap toward Idiocracy, the made-up future world conjured by Beavis & Bu ... More >>

Pizza-Ordering Parrot Birdnapped from Hialeah

via WSVN​In today's roundup of horrible things: a pet parrot that could order pizza was stolen in Hialeah, "baby sperm dies," the Miami-Dade man infected with dengue fever is doing just fine, and 36 people were arrested in a Medicare fraud sweep.

Three Weeks Into 2010, It's Going to Be a Very Dumb Year: Behold Your Morons of the Week

You see it every new year: South Florida's morons resolve to turn over a new leaf. They promise they will keep their names and mug shots out of news articles with the phrases oddly enough or incredibly idiotic in the headlines. But now, during the third week in January, our heroes are suffering from ... More >>

Moron of the Week: The Confused Airplane Racist Screamer Takes it in a Landslide

​As always, there were plenty of undeniably idiotic contenders for this week's title, a couple of whom might have even taken top honors on a different week. Take, for example, this Totally Cliche South Florida Medicare Scammer, who allegedly blew millions on exotic cars- who's to say ... More >>

News Roundup: So Many Thieves; The U Breaks ESPN Ratings Records

Feds yesterday arrested 30 people in three cities, including Miami, for Medicare fraud. Dr. Fred Dweck, 14 of his patients, and one unlucky guy who was photographed being handcuffed, man-tits and all, were among those arrested in Miami. [MLive | Herald]A thief is targeting churches an ... More >>

News Roundup

Mayoral candidate Tomas Regalado may be accused of not being able to deal with his personal finances (he claims to only be worth $5000 year after year, and once had his wages garnished for not paying taxes), but his campaign manager is doing a good job with his war chest. He's consistently out-raisi ... More >>

Victoria Jackson: Obama Is Hitler Jr. and Wants to Kill Your Grandma

So apparently Victoria Jackson's heartfelt column about breaking into tears over Year One's sheep-fucking jokes was the first in what we can only hope is a long line of columns for (former Drudge collaborator) Andrew Breitbart's conservative site Big Hollywood.Unfortunately, the SNL alum and Mi ... More >>

News Roundup

WPLG pulled the files on Adam Tavss, the Miami Beach Police officer involved in the questionable killing of a Arab-American tourist. Nothing all that interesting; they describe him as a "satisfactory" rookie cop. [JustNews]Portions of southbound Palmetto Expressway will be closed tonight. [Herald]R ... More >>

Miami's Medicare Racket: Eight More Indicted in $100 Million Fraud

Let's go ahead and just christen it the cocaine trade of the Double-Aughts: Medicare fraud may be a lot less sexy, but it sure is keeping federal prosecutors in Miami busy.One month after busting up a $21 million, three-state ring, the feds expanded that investigation and charged eight Miami re ... More >>

News Roundup

LocalSome guy hijacked a taxi on Alton, then drove west up the eastbound lanes of the MacArthur Causeway. Police shot him. He's dead. The road was shut down. [SunSent] The Herald and CBS4 are so hungry for Cat Killer fodder that they've sued to get sealed information about the arrest released. [Hera ... More >>

Two More Arrested In Miami's Hottest New Racket, Medicare Fraud

Sure, it's not as sexy as running coke in cigarette boats over the Florida Straits or bootlegging moonshine for northern gangsters on the lam. But damn if Medicare fraud isn't lucrative -- which is probably why it's shaping up as one of the defining crimes of modern Miami.As Jay Weaver's great cover ... More >>

Miami HIV Scammers Guilty of $5.3 Million Medicare Fraud

A federal jury this week convicted two doctors and two assistants of bilking Medicare for millions of dollars by setting up a bogus HIV clinic in Miami, the State Attorney's office tells Riptide, the latest conviction in a racket that's quickly become the Magic City's seamiest new claim to crooked f ... More >>

News Roundup

News5 people were shot outside a Miami Gardens night club, but it seems all will recover. [UPI]Is there anything left to cut? McClatchy, The Herald's parent company, plans to eliminate another 1600 jobs company wide. That's 15% of its remaining work force. [Bloomberg]All these recent cases of Medica ... More >>

News Roundup

UM is asking its individual schools to cut their budgets by at least 5 percent, and is considering pay freezes. [CBS4]Steve Rodriguez attempted to undress and possibly rape a woman in the parking lot at the International Mall. Now he's in police custody. [NBC6]A baby alligator? In my pool? [NBC6]Mor ... More >>

Sorry, Lungs, Florida Remains a Smoker's Haven

The American Lung Association released Florida's annual smoking report card, and we got three Fs. As in F'ing awesome? No, as in one out of five Floridians are slowly F'ing killing themselves. Whoops. The ALA recognizes the state for increasing its tobacco control funding, but overall we're still fa ... More >>

News Roundup

I just wanted to share the fact that this image on the right is actually from the Illinois.Gov, and is the single most helpful thing I've ever seen on a government website. [Illinois] Dr. Evan Zimmer, a well known Miami-beach psychiatrist, was arrested on charges of spending $10,000 on prostitutes, ... More >>

News Roundup

Best Politician Convicted In The Past Twelve Months

Alberto Gutman

These Numbers Are Up

1998 was a great year for corruption. New Times puts a price tag on the year's malfeasance

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.

Fraudbuster!

Dirty Money