Forensics Talk

Welcome to Forensics Talk!

 Hello everyone, I'm Kathleen

   

For those who are not familiar with this blog site, welcome!    

    When people find out I'm a forensic nurse, I often get the same response: Oh, CSI!  Well ... no, not exactly.

While I've heard the show certainly has some entertaining moments, in real life, cases aren't solved in an hour. Nor are they solved by only a handful of people managing every single aspect of the case.

  

  

   

    Forensics is the application of science to the law and it actually encompasses many fields, many different types of investigations, and a multitude of professionals - from the police and detectives to crime scene technicians; from medical examiners to emergency response personnel and crime lab experts -                                       

                                          

           ... to forensic nurses, private investigators and Accident Investigators; from criminal profilers to forensic meteorologists, and Medical Board and Fraud investigators.

It's an intricate web of professionals whose varied expertise can be paramount to the success of any one case.

 No one can stand alone. We bring together a variety of backgrounds and rely on each other to help get the job done. This is what makes this field so fascinating to me. Nothing is static and there is always so much to learn from each other.

   It's for that reason that I created this weblog. The goal is to exchange news, commentary, and information related to the application of forensics to many different fields, so as to be both interesting and informative for professionals and the general public alike.
                                                                                     
   I write my own posts when time allows, using primarily authoratative sources and experts. My posts are located in the Pages section on the left and in the archives. . . Read More

Medicare Fraud: One Of The Most Profitable Crimes In U.S.

Medical News Today

Article Date: 27 Oct 2009 - 3:00 PDT

  "Medicare "provides a rich and steady income stream for criminals who are constantly finding new ways to steal a sizable chunk of the half trillion dollars that are paid out each year in Medicare benefits," 60 Minutes reports. "In fact, Medicare fraud - estimated now to total about $60 billion a year - has become one of, if not the most profitable, crimes in America." Medicare fraud leaves little evidence: an FBI agent in South Florida said "the only visible evidence of the crimes are the thousands of tiny clinics and pharmacies that dot the low-rent strip malls. You don't even know they're there because there's never anyone inside. No doctors, no nurses and no patients." Yet one of those offices, a "tiny medical supply company" charged Medicare "almost $2 million in July and a half million dollars while 60 Minutes was there in August, but we never found anybody inside, and our phone calls were never returned."'Read More

Cell Phone Video Shows Police Beating of Student

YahooNews!    

A/P Associated Press

5 mins ago

SAN JOSE, Calif. – " A cell phone video that shows police officers repeatedly hitting an unarmed university student with batons and a Taser gun has prompted a criminal investigation into the officers' conduct, a San Jose police spokesman said.

The video, posted by the San Jose Mercury News on its Web site late Saturday, shows one officer hitting 20-year-old Vietnamese student Phuong Ho with a metal baton more than 10 times, including once on the head. Another officer is seen using his Taser gun on the San Jose State math major.

The final baton strike in last month's incident appears to take place after handcuffs have been attached to Ho's wrists.

"It takes me back to the day I saw the Rodney King video on TV," said Roger Clark, a police expert and a retired lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

The last baton strike ought to bring a felony charge, Clark said.

Officers arrested Ho on suspicion of assaulting one of his roommates. He was not armed when police arrived and he told the newspaper he didn't resist arrest. . . " Read More

Nursing Home Cited, Sued After Elderly Man's Genitals Disintegrate

Seattle pi Local

Friday, October 16, 2009
Last updated 6:59 a.m. PT

By LEVI PULKKINEN
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

  " An Everett nursing home is facing a lawsuit after an elderly resident's genitals disintegrated while staff allegedly failed to act.

Charles Bradley, then 93, arrived at Everett Care & Rehabilitation in the winter of 2004, suffering from the usual maladies of old age, according to court documents. He continued to live at the nursing home until two weeks before his death, which came on March 31, 2008, when he was rushed to the emergency room with a life-threatening -- but previously undetected -- malady.

In court documents, attorneys for Bradley's family claim staff at the nursing home left a wound on the elderly man untreated for months. That injury, apparently the result of an undiagnosed penile cancer, purportedly contributed to his death.

By allowing Bradley's injury to fester and worsen for months, plaintiffs' attorney Matthew Boller claimed, the nursing home and parent company SunBridge Healthcare Corp. violated a promise to care for him.

"They trusted that the nursing home would provide the care they said they would provide," Boller said Wednesday. "We're not talking about extraordinary care. We're talking about basic daily needs."

GAO Links Medicaid Fraud to Recreational Drug Use

FraudBlawg

October 6, 2009

 Report Shows How Taxpayers Subsidize Dealers, Pushers & Addicts

   " Nearly 7% of all Medicaid costs (more than $20 billion per year) is allocated to pay for prescription drugs, more than $63 million of which may have gone to feed the addictions of recreational drug users last year, according to a Government Accountabily Office (GAO) report publiched last month. The report examines a practice among drug abusers known as “doctor shoppping” where addicts purchase the same type of controlled substance from numerous different doctors during the same time period for their own use or for sale on the street — with the taxpayers picking up the tab through the State-administered Medicaid program (which recieves some $80+ billion in federal assistance annually). Additionally, the GAO report identified numerous other scams by which drugs paid for by Medicaid illegally make their way to the streets, including doctors overprescribing controlled substances, writing controlled substance prescriptions without DEA authorization, and prescriptions for over “1,800 beneficiaries who were dead at that time.” Read highlights of the GAO investigation or the the full 47-page September 9 GAO report.

Another Physical Therapist Guilty of Medicare FraudOctober 22, 2009

Fraudblawg

" According to DOJ, Michigan physical therapist, Solomon Nathaniel, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the Medicare program by creating fictitious therapy files regarding phony physical and occupational therapy services that were billed to Medicare. Nathaniel and his co-conspirators paid cash kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries in exchange for the beneficiaries’ Medicare numbers and signatures. Nathaniel’s co-conspirator, Suresh Chand, pleaded guilty to similar charges in late September. This plea comes on the heels of other similar physical therapy related Medicare fraud schemes reported previously by FraudBlawg. The case was handled by the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT).

Link Between Pesticides Exposure And Suicidal Thoughts

Medical News Today

Article Date: 24 Oct 2009 - 0:00 PDT

   " A new study in China has found that people with higher levels of pesticide exposure are more likely to have suicidal thoughts. The study was carried out by Dr Robert Stewart from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London together with scientists from Tongde Hospital Zhejiang Province.

The agricultural pesticides commonly used in China are organophosphates which are in wide use in many lower income countries but have been banned in many Western nations. It is well known that they are very dangerous if ingested as an overdose but there is also biological evidence that chronic low-grade exposure to these chemicals, which are very easily absorbed into the body through the skin and lungs, may have adverse effects on mental health. This study is the first epidemiological evidence to suggest possible effects on suicidal thoughts.

The study was carried out in central/coastal China, a relatively wealthy area with a rapidly developing economy. In a very large survey of mental health in rural community residents, participants were also asked about how they stored pesticides. The study found that people who stored pesticides at home, i.e. those with more exposure, were more likely to report recent suicidal thoughts. Supporting this, the survey also found suicidal thoughts to be associated with how easily accessible these pesticides were in the home and that the geographic areas with highest home storage of pesticides also had highest levels of suicidal thoughts in their populations. . . " Read More