Businessman indicted in $510 million Tricare fraud scheme
By: The Associated Press
September 27, 2019
JACKSON, Miss. — Federal prosecutors say a Mississippi businessman has been indicted in one of the nation’s largest health care fraud investigations.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced that 52-year-old Wade Ashley Walters of Hattiesburg is charged for his alleged role in a scheme involving fraudulent prescriptions.
Prosecutors say the fraud led to TRICARE and other health care benefit programs reimbursing various companies more than $510 million.
The scheme targeted people insured by TRICARE, which covers military members, their families, retirees and some National Guard members and reservists.
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Doctor pleads guilty to sexually exploiting VA patients
By: The Associated Press
September 27, 2019
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — A California doctor has pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting five women — several of them veterans — while doing work for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Edgar Manzanera pleaded guilty Wednesday as trial was to begin on more serious charges of sexual assault. Instead of potentially facing more than a dozen years in prison, Manzanera will be sentenced to three years of probation. He also must surrender his medical license and register as a sex offender.
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“He was all about that baby and she was all about him,” Grandfather dies after saving 3-year-old granddaughter from house explosion
KFOR 4 News
Kelsey Hill
September 24, 2019
“Just thought about the steep grade of that driveway and just knew and kind of came to the conclusions that they were carried up that driveway you know. It wasn`t him, it wasn`t her something carried them up that driveway." Brendon Osteen
MAUD, Okla. - A grandfather rescued his 3-year-old granddaughter after the home they were in exploded.
Don Osteen was a longtime educator, Army Veteran, and Purple Heart recipient. He spent his life putting others first and would help anyone if they needed it, even a stranger.
Brendon Osteen says his father looked forward to every minute that he could spend with his granddaughter, Paetyn.
"That`s what he was first and foremost I mean he was all about that baby and she was all about him,” said Osteen.
He said his father was 15 to 30 feet away from the front door, lighting a candle next to the stove when the explosion happened.
“He wasn`t worried about himself at all. I'll leave it at that, but save her was the message he was trying to get across and he did exactly that,” said Osteen.
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Osteen suffered a collapsed lung, broken ribs, and severe burns, but he was able to carry Paetyn to safety, even navigating the family’s steep driveway to get help.
“He just got out of the house and headed straight to where he knew help was. He tried to get in his truck and his keys were melted to him. His phone was exploded in his pocket," he said.
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VA staff’s instant action prevents a Veteran suicide
VAntage
by Kristen Parker
September 25, 2019
Many common risk factors for suicide are treatable. As a community, we can #BeThere and save Veterans lives through stories of hope and recovery.
In the photo above, Cleveland VA’s lifesaving team includes (from left) Jose Rivera (ED nurse manager), Kimberly Miller (infusion clinic nurse), Jennifer Davis (dietitian), Erin Valenti (infusion clinic nurse manager), Alexandra Murray (psychiatry intern) and Rocco Burke (police officer).
It’s not often that we talk about suicide in terms of lives saved, but recently, the Cleveland VA team saved a Veteran from ending his life.
He came in for his medical appointment for treatment just like any other day. During a casual conversation with a VA team member, he shared his plan for suicide. He had lost hope and didn’t feel he had anything more to offer.
The VA team member wasn’t a mental health provider, a nurse or a doctor, but is a compassionate VA employee who knew how to #BeThere. The VA team member immediately engaged members of the Veteran’s treatment team.
They showed compassion and talked with the Veteran about his needs and together, then they developed a plan that helped him feel safe.
Every member of the VA team flawlessly executed their role to save this Veteran’s life. They got him to the emergency department and, eventually, to the psychiatric assessment and observation center for further treatment.
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Service dog whose story raised awareness of PTSD has died
The Associated Press
By: Pat Eaton-Robb
September 24, 2019
Montalvan took his own life in 2016. He had left Tuesday with family members and the dog was not with him at the time.
HARTFORD, Conn. — A service dog that was the subject of several books by an Iraq war veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder has died.
In this Dec. 16, 2016, photo, Tuesday, a golden retriever, poses in Bethel, Conn. (Cyrus McCrimmon/Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities via AP)
Tuesday, a golden retriever, was 13 when he died Tuesday in Burlington, according to Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities, a service dog training organization that places dogs with veterans.
Tuesday gained fame touring the country with former Army Capt. Luis Carlos Montalvan, who wrote the memoir “Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him.”
The book, the first of four written by Montalvan about his life with Tuesday, became a bestseller in 2011. It was credited with helping raise awareness of PTSD and the availability of service dogs for veterans.
Montalvan was a decorated veteran, who was wounded in Iraq and earned two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.
After he came home, his extreme PTSD often prevented him from even leaving his apartment, said Dale Picard, co-founder and executive director of ECAD.
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Ex-care center owner charged with manslaughter in Marine veteran’s death
The Associated Press
By: Steve Karnowski
September 24, 2019
The second-degree manslaughter count cited the case of a 72-year-old Marine Corps veteran, identified only as R.M., who died last October of septic shock, an untreated urinary tract infection and other complications resulting from improper medical care and neglect. The investigators said doctors and nurses who treated him at a Duluth hospital just before his death found a “filthy” catheter and a 1-square-foot pressure sore on his tailbone that was draining a “foul smelling liquid,” a wound they said resulted from “utter, complete neglect.”
(thinkstock.com)
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s attorney general’s office said Tuesday that it has charged 10 people with 76 criminal counts following an investigation into the death of a 72-year-old man and what it described as egregious neglect of other patients at a northern Minnesota care center.
The most serious charges include racketeering, swindling and manslaughter counts against Theresa Lee Olson, 43, the former owner of the now-closed center, Chappy’s Golden Shores in Hill City. Olson is also accused of bilking the state’s Medicaid program out of nearly $2.2 million. The facility had been the subject of repeated disciplinary and administrative actions by the Minnesota Department of Health and the Department of Human Services, the attorney general’s office said.
“My office is holding these defendants accountable for what we believe we can prove is systematic, intolerable abuse and neglect that in one case led to death, not to mention widespread fraud, theft, and other charges that hurt everyone,” Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement.
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