Central Banker Facing a Test

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Central Banker Facing a Test

By LANDON THOMAS Jr.

LONDON — Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, has helped the euro zone survive August. But can he save September?

This month, Mr. Draghi stared down bearish international traders who were convinced that Europe’s common currency project would collapse.

“It is pointless to bet against the euro — it is pointless to go short on the euro,” Mr. Draghi said at a news conference on Aug. 2, a week after telling the world that the central bank would do “whatever it takes” to save the euro union.

Investors, or at least the ones venturing into the lightly traded markets this month, have taken heed.

Since Aug. 2, the euro is up 3.1 percent against the dollar. More notably, battered stocks and bonds in Spain and Italy have soared. The euro bears have rushed to close out their negative bets, and even some risk-averse traders have piled into assets they previously scorned.

But it will be September and not the lazy days of August that will truly test Mr. Draghi’s market-moving mettle. He will face severe pressure to provide specific details of his plan to shore up the euro zone’s weaker members by buying their bonds.

The first big test could come next week, on Sept. 6, when the bank’s governing council meets. Afterward, Mr. Draghi will again hold a news conference to try to explain whatever the central bank has or has not done. Bearish traders will be poised to pounce yet again on any signs of waffling.

Worries are also swirling that Germany will refuse to grant Greece the time and resources it is seeking to reduce its debt, something that could push it out of the euro currency bloc. Looming as well is the possibility that a decision from Germany’s Constitutional Court, expected on Sept. 12, will rule out German involvement in the region’s new bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism.

The schism within German policy circles has been revealed in recent days. In an interview with the magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday, the head of the German central bank, Jens Weidmann, who is also on the European Central Bank Governing Council, fiercely criticized any intervention by the European bank in bond markets.

But on Monday, Jörg Asmussen, a German on the E.C.B.’s executive board who was a colleague of Mr. Weidmann in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said during a speech in Hamburg that the bank had to buy bonds to stabilize European debt markets.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

A Test of Smart Cars Gets Under Way

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Wednesday, August 22, 2012

A Test of Smart Cars Gets Under Way

By BILL VLASIC

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Federal regulators on Tuesday announced a yearlong “smart car” project to determine whether wireless communication between vehicles can improve safety on the nation’s highways.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said 3,000 cars, buses and trucks in this city near Detroit would be equipped with data recorders and a technology akin to Wi-Fi that can transmit information about accidents or hazardous traffic conditions.

Drivers in the connected vehicles will be warned, for example, of sudden changes in traffic patterns or potential collisions through data transmitted from similarly equipped cars and roadside devices.

Mr. LaHood said the $25 million study would yield data useful in deciding whether the government should require such crash avoidance technology in future vehicles.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Clinic Owners Plead Guilty in Medicare Fraud Scheme

Three Detroit-Area Clinic Owners Plead Guilty for Their Roles in $5.4 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme 

U.S. Department of JusticeMarch 14, 2012

Office of Public Affairs(202) 514-2007/TDD (202) 514-1888

WASHINGTON—Three Detroit-area clinic owners pleaded guilty today for their participation in a Medicare fraud scheme, announced the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Karina Hernandez, 28; Marieva Briceno, 46; and Henry Briceno, 58, all of Miami, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow in the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. At sentencing, each defendant faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

According to the plea documents, Hernandez managed the daily operations of three Livonia, Michigan clinics: Blessed Medical Clinic, Alpha & Omega Medical Clinic, and Manuel Medical Clinic. Marieva Briceno contributed capital to fund the opening of one clinic, and assisted her daughter, Hernandez, in the daily management of the clinics. At each clinic, Hernandez and Marieva Briceno hired recruiters who paid cash bribes to Medicare beneficiaries to attend the clinics and provide their Medicare numbers and other information. Hernandez and Marieva Briceno admitted that they used the beneficiary information to bill for medically unnecessary diagnostic tests and treatments. Henry Briceno admitted that he incorporated Manuel Medical Clinic and opened a bank account to conceal the actual ownership of the clinic. According to court documents, Blessed Medical Clinic, Alpha & Omega Medical Clinic, and Manuel Medical Clinic fraudulently billed Medicare for $5.4 million during the course of the scheme.

Today’s guilty pleas were announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara L. McQuade; Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh, III of the HHS Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) Chicago Regional Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Frances Lee Carlson and Philip A. Ross of the Eastern District of Michigan, with assistance from Assistant Chief Gejaa T. Gobena of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Since their inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in nine districts have charged more than 1,190 individuals, who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $3.6 billion. In addition, HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, is taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

Digital Records May Not Cut Health Costs

Excerpt from an article in

The New York Times

Tuesday March 06, 2012

Digital Records May Not Cut Health Costs, Study Cautions

By STEVE LOHR

Computerized patient records are unlikely to cut health care costs and may actually encourage doctors to order expensive tests more often, a study published on Monday concludes.

Industry experts have said that electronic health records could generate huge savings — as much as $80 billion a year, according to a RAND Corporation estimate. The promise of cost savings has been a major justification for billions of dollars in federal spending to encourage doctors to embrace digital health records.

But research published Monday in the journal Health Affairs found that doctors using computers to track tests, like X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging, ordered far more tests than doctors relying on paper records.

The use of costly image-taking tests has increased sharply in recent years. Many experts contend that electronic health records will help reduce unnecessary and duplicative tests by giving doctors more comprehensive and up-to-date information when making diagnoses.

The study showed, however, that doctors with computerized access to a patient’s previous image results ordered tests on 18 percent of the visits, while those without the tracking technology ordered tests on 12.9 percent of visits. That is a 40 percent higher rate of image testing by doctors using electronic technology instead of paper records.

The gap, according to the study, was even greater — a 70 percent higher rate — for more advanced and expensive image tests, including M.R.I. tests and CT, or computerized tomography, scans.

“Our research raises real concerns about whether health information technology is going to be the answer to reducing costs,” said Dr. Danny McCormick, the lead author of the study, who is an assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School and a member of the department of medicine at the Cambridge Health Alliance, a health system north of Boston.