L.A. homeless dumping is possible kickback scam

Our healthcare system needs to undergo major changes and we must start by changing the way we think.

Healthcare in this country is a major moneymaker. Pharmaceutical and insurance companies make millions off of all our medical problems, yet all we do is watch as we feed them money in the name of achieving health.

That is why I nearly blew a major gasket, which might have cost me a pretty penny in hospital bills, when police uncovered a nasty scheme involving the very people we turn to for care.

It started in 2006 when Los Angeles police happened across an unfamiliar scene of what seemed like a hospital dumping homeless patients on skid row.

Turns out it was a Medicare and Medi-Cal scheme that was designed to put thousands of dollars into the pockets of a hospital owner and executive, Dr. Rudra Sabaratnam, and the director of a homeless “assessment center,” Estill Mitts, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The two charged men are in their 60s and have been accused of paying/receiving kickbacks, money laundering, tax evasion and costing Medicare and Medi-Cal millions in paid bogus claims.

The racket allegedly paid homeless recruits $20 to $30 each for short hospital stays, where some were treated for non-existing problems and not treated for what may actually be ailing them, like drug addiction and mental health issues, according to CNN.

It seems that this so-called doctor and his cohort essentially might have contributed to disabling habits of their homeless victims. Think about it. The homeless usually suffer from mental, drug and alcohol problems and this most likely was the motivation for participation, as a means to satisfy their addictions.

Recruiters also paid for each homeless person picked up to fill unused hospital beds.

Human health must stop being a business and patients shouldn’t be walking dollar signs. The government must play a bigger role in the care of our citizens as well as manage government-funded aid in a more effective way.

We need to start rewarding doctors and hospitals for helping patients become healthy and we must change our conceptions of medical care from being a vastly profitable market into a care market.

Would we know about this atrocity if the police didn’t happen to be at the right place at the right time?

Who is responsible for ensuring our tax dollars are going to legit causes?

Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has filed a civil suit against Sabaratnam and Mitts in addition to their 21-count grand jury indictment. If convicted, they can serve anywhere from 50 to 140 years in prison, according to CNN.

A solution to this problem may just be in solving the homeless dilemma itself. The homeless in Southern California is a public heath issue and if it were properly addressed then maybe this situation could have been avoided.

As long as there are humans, there will be mentally ill and addicted people, and as a society that does not like them hanging on our streets, we need to clean up this problem not through exploitation but through help.

Despite the L.A. downtown area urban improvements, skid row is still an overlooked dumping ground for the despondent of our society. We can eliminate these ills by offering a place they can go to get help, not a place where they mistreat people for a profit.

Serafina Costanza is a senior journalism major and an assistant opinions editor for the Daily Forty-Niner.