Medicare's top paid doctor ($20.8M) was Sen. Menendez's top political donor

[tsai3904]

Medicare paid a tiny group of doctors $3 million or more apiece in 2012. One got nearly $21 million.

Those are among the findings of an Associated Press analysis of physician data released Wednesday by the Obama administration, part of a move to open the books on health care financing.

Topping Medicare's list was Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, whose relationship with Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., made headlines last year after news broke that the lawmaker used the doctor's personal jet for trips to the Dominican Republic. Medicare paid Melgen $20.8 million.

...

Melgen, the top-paid physician in 2012, has already come under scrutiny. In addition to allowing the use of his jet, the eye specialist was the top political donor for Menendez as the New Jersey Democrat sought re-election to the Senate that year.

Menendez's relationship with Melgen prompted Senate Ethics and Justice Department investigations. Menendez reimbursed Melgen more than $70,000 for plane trips.

The issue exploded in late January 2013, after the FBI conducted a search of Melgen's West Palm Beach offices. Agents carted away evidence, but law enforcement officials have refused to say why. Authorities declined to comment on the open investigation.

More:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/medicare-database-reveals-top-paid-doctors

This article goes more in depth:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/data-uncover-nations-top-medicare-billers/2014/04/08/9101a77e-bf39-11e3-b574-f8748871856a_story.html

[puppetmaster]

Hehehe......crooks will be crooks.

[green73]

MIAMI — The doctor who bills the most for Medicare in the country is a South Florida ophthalmologist whose offices were twice raided last year by the FBI and whose generous political contributions and cozy relationship with New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez are under investigation by federal public corruption prosecutors, a New York Times analysis of Medicare data shows.

Data released Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, 59, who moved to Florida from the Dominican Republic in the late 1970s, received $21 million in Medicare reimbursements in 2012 alone. The doctor billed mostly for Lucentis, a medication used to treat macular degeneration made by a company that pays generous rebates to its doctors.

cont.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/business/doctor-with-big-medicare-billings-is-no-stranger-to-scrutiny.html?_r=0

Listen to this elucidating interview with Bill Sardi on how the Big Pharma-Medical complex crushes the market entry of cheap alternatives to expensive and less effective medications for such afflictions as macular degeneration.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?444458-Eat-one-meal-a-day-and-keep-Big-Pharma-away

[tod evans]

Gotta wonder how many FRN's changed hands from the fed-gov to Big-Pharm in order for this jokers graft to tally $21M?

And that's only one Dr., one drug.....

[donnay]

Generous rebates, eh? Oh is that the new code word for kickbacks?

[tod evans]

Generous rebates, eh? Oh is that the new code word for kickbacks?


No, no, NO!

Off to the reprogramming camps for you lady!

Don'tcha know Dr.'s are held in higher esteem than even government employees?

Blaspheme!

[anaconda]

Thanks to all the New Jersey voters who elected Menendez. Now can you tell us why you did it? I understand the underage hookers in the Dominican Republic are now saying they were paid to lie about Menendez. Which frankly doesn't pass my bullshit test. At least yet.

[nobody's_hero]

Thanks to all the New Jersey voters who elected Menendez. Now can you tell us why you did it?

Because—you silly anaconda—republicans only care about rich people, and democrats are much more in tune with the plight of the common man. —oh wait, Menendez is a democrat? Oh um . . . well, the tea party is racist!!!! Yeah!

[AuH20]

Was this guy literally mass producing prescriptions to accumulate a tally like that? How did he treat so many people?

[oyarde]

Was this guy literally mass producing prescriptions to accumulate a tally like that? How did he treat so many people?

I am wondering that as well.

[HOLLYWOOD]

Graft and Corruption... setup the payola in crafted laws and that's how you reward your campaign donors and pedophilia prostitution sugar daddy on private "Forgotten TO Declare" trips.

The whole Washington DC system is lawless garbage...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/9/obama-releases-trove-medicare-data-/

No joke: Doctors pocketed $77 billion from Medicare in 2012 By Tom Howell Jr. (http://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/tom-howell-jr/)
-
The Washington Times
Wednesday, April 9, 2014

The Obama administration on Wednesday released a trove of data on the health care services that physicians and other health care providers delivered in 2012 — and how much Medicare (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/medicare/) paid out for them.Its data dump, posted at midnight ahead of a formal announcement Wednesday morning, is designed to make the health care system “more transparent and accountable,” said a Centers for Medicare (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/medicare/) and Medicaid Services blog post this month.
More than 880,000 health care providers across the country collectively took in $77 billion in payments during 2012 under Medicare (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/medicare/)’s fee-for-service program, according to CMS.
An early look at the data by The New York Times revealed that 2 percent of doctors accounted for nearly a quarter of the billions paid out, with some doctors taking in millions in a single year.
Groups like the American Medical Association objected to the data release, saying its form “will not allow patients or payers to draw meaningful conclusions about the value or quality of care.”
http://media.washtimes.com/media/image/2014/04/09/de8d6e79f1d3d40d500f6a706700ac22_s220x180.jpg?fdcd f1f50014a758dbb007618c4446cf8e8039c9 (http://www.washingtontimes.com/multimedia/image/ap_de8d6e79f1d3d40d500f6a706700ac22jpg/)

** FILE ** This Jan. 31, 2010, file image released by Miami ... more > (http://www.washingtontimes.com/multimedia/image/ap_de8d6e79f1d3d40d500f6a706700ac22jpg/)

“We believe that the broad data dump today by CMS has significant short-comings regarding the accuracy and value of the medical services rendered by physicians,” it said in a statement. “Releasing the data without context will likely lead to inaccuracies, misinterpretations, false conclusions and other unintended consequences.”
A South Florida ophthalmologist, Salomen E. Melgen, whose close relationship with Sen. Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat, came under scrutiny last year, received $21 million in Medicare (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/medicare/) reimbursements in 2012, The Times reported. His lawyer put out a statement saying the doctor “billed in conformity with Medicare (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/medicare/) rules” at all times.
http://kwout.com/cutout/u/g5/gv/7gy_bor.jpg
Sen. Robert Menendez Reimburses Campaign Donor for $11K Jet Trip | NBC New York (http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Senator-Robert-Menendez-Reimburses-Free-Private-Trip-Campaign-Donor-243025191.html)

[enhanced_deficit]

Suspect doc was quite the greaser of Dem politicians including even SWC dronebag, dronebag's "other first lady" Debbie Wasserman (http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/focus-u-s-a/obama-s-other-first-lady-1.389542), Reid, Schumery:


http://images.politico.com/global/2013/03/19/130319_obama_melgen_courtesy_328.jpg Ruth David





Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn’t talking about Democratic donor Salomon Melgen one day after POLITICO reported (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/robert-menendez-donor-courted-president-obama-harry-reid-89107.html) that Melgen flew Reid on his jet last summer.


Salomon Melgen could see 250,000 percent return on his Dominican port security investment thanks to Bob Menendez meddling

It’s good to have friends in high places as Salomon Melgen has learned. According to the Daily Caller (http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/18/report-menendez-donor-could-see-250000-percent-return-on-recent-dominican-port-security-investment), could see a 250,000-percent return on his most recent investment in a Dominican port security company. Yes, that’s 250,000% return on an investment. A little odd don’t you think?
TIME magazine reported Monday that Melgen paid just $100,000 in August 2011 for 50 percent of ICSSI, a company that holds an exclusive contract to provide cargo x-ray equipment for ports in the Dominican Republic. Melgen already owned the other 50 percent of the company, making him its sole shareholder.
That lucrative contract, which lay dormant since 2002 when Melgen bought the company, could be worth $500 million over its scheduled 20-year lifespan — meaning that his $100,000 investment could multiply in value by a factor of 2,500.
But that can only happen if the Dominican Republic enforces ICSSI’s contract.

http://networkedblogs.com/IrIaK

http://cdn.breitbart.com/mediaserver/Breitbart/Big-Peace/2012/09/04/Obama-Debbie-Wasserman-Schultz-AF-1.jpg (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=VbVTgMltWTOXaM&tbnid=2mLbsG-DrwfAVM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2FBig-Peace%2F2012%2F09%2F04%2FIsraeli-Security-Official-In-Second-Term-Obama-Will-Punish-Netanyahu&ei=wZJFU6qJAqK_0AHxwYHoCw&bvm=bv.64507335,d.dmQ&psig=AFQjCNF_BzUG25F2Lm63TvDqne1I95QmBw&ust=1397154856990956)

Dr. Salomon Melgen is also a big donor to Chuck Schumer, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz ... (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFgQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fireandreamitchell.com%2F2013 %2F01%2F31%2Fdr-salomon-melgen-is-also-a-big-donor-to-chuck-schumer-debbie-wasserman-schultz-hillary-clintons-brother-and-mark-foley%2F&ei=GY1FU-SgNrPfsASZ4YCgBw&usg=AFQjCNGc4u2Zn6DfIxZ0IdrJI8zNBNzwoQ&bvm=bv.64507335,d.cWc)

Jan 31, 2013 - Federal Election Commission records show that Dr. Salomon Melgen, the Miami ophthalmologist connected to New Jersey Democratic Sen.

[Nirvikalpa]

He's an ophtha. Think of the senior population in FL, as well as the increase in macular degeneration diseases. My grandmother's shots cost $4k/shot (which each eye gets every 6 weeks, so every three weeks one eye gets a shot) but a not-profit helps us cover the cost - and she's been getting them for... two years now? We go to the top-rated ophtha in NJ and we wait a good 2-3 hours every appt - his clinic has two waiting rooms, and they're filled every single time we go there - so about 40 seniors waiting for these shots and eye care.

One of the best medical specialties you can go into.

That said... Menendez is an ass. And that's about the nicest thing I can say about him.

[kcchiefs6465]

Bump.