Tag: health care

Former NY Sales Director Sentenced to Prison in $70M Medicare Brain Scan Scheme

A former New York-based sales director for the Northeast region of a mobile medical diagnostics company was sentenced on Feb. 13, 2026, in federal court in Boston for conspiring to offer and pay kickbacks to doctors in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans.

The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of about $70.6 million to Medicare. Medicare paid approximately $27.2 million to the TCD company for the fraudulent claims.

James Rausch, 57, of Point Jefferson Station, N.Y., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to eight months in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release. The defendant was also ordered to pay $17.5 million in restitution, forfeiture in the amount of $408,437 and a $20,000 fine.

 In June 2025, Rausch pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute.

From March 2015 through at least September 2020, Rausch conspired with others, including two managers for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, to enter into kickback agreements with various doctors. 

TCD scans are brain scans that measure blood flow in parts of the brain. 

Rausch and his co-conspirators agreed to offer and pay doctors kickbacks, some in cash and others by check, based on the number of TCD ultrasounds the doctors ordered. The co-conspirators created purported rental and administrative service agreements, which on paper made it appear as if doctors were compensated for the TCD company’s use of space and administrative resources of the ordering doctor’s practice based on fair market value and not based on the volume or value of referrals. These were sham agreements that hid the true nature of the arrangement of paying per test.  

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Florida, Texas Executives Get 20 Years for $233M Affordable Care Act Fraud Scheme

Two executives were each sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted for a years-long scheme to steal from the Affordable Care Act program.

The defendants — the president of an insurance brokerage firm and the CEO of a marketing company — preyed on tens of thousands of vulnerable consumers to improperly enroll them into fully subsidized ACA plans, for which the defendants earned millions of dollars in commission payments from insurance companies.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Cory Lloyd, 47, of Stuart, Florida, and Steven Strong, 43, of Mansfield, Texas, engaged in an extensive fraud scheme that sought over $233 million in fraudulent ACA plan subsidies for which the federal government paid at least $180 million. 

“Preying upon medically compromised consumers to rob hundreds of millions from taxpayer-funded programs is evil and unforgivable,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Fraud schemes like this rob citizens and shake faith in our institutions — today’s sentencing is the latest example of this DOJ’s commitment to fighting fraud nationwide.”

As proven at trial, Lloyd and Strong targeted vulnerable, low-income individuals experiencing homelessness, unemployment, and mental health and substance abuse disorders, and, through “street marketers” working on their behalf, sometimes offered bribes to induce those individuals to enroll in subsidized ACA plans. 

“These defendants didn’t just commit fraud; they built a business model around exploiting people at their most vulnerable,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “They targeted vulnerable individuals in the community, manipulated federal health programs for profit, and put victims at risk of losing critical medical care so they could cash in. Stealing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars while endangering lives is as callous as it gets. The FBI and our partners will continue to track down and hold accountable anyone who treats vulnerable Americans as a payday.”

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New York Times Hit Piece On ICE Facilities’ Medical Care Is Riddled With Falsehoods, DHS Says

Ahit piece in The New York Times claiming the medical care provided at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers is ‘poor’ is riddled with falsehoods, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told The Federalist.

The New York Times on Saturday ran through several claims that several illegal aliens did not receive proper care: Aliens were forced to wait long periods of time to be “lucky enough to see a doctor,” diabetes patients did not receive regular insulin, and detainees faced various other medical care failures.

According to DHS, those claims are totally unfounded.

“These allegations of illegal aliens being denied proper medical care in ICE custody are FALSE. It is both policy and longstanding practice for aliens to receive timely and appropriate medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody,” Dr. Sean Conley, DHS chief medical officer, told The Federalist. “This includes medical, dental, women’s health and mental health services, any needed follow up medical appointments as well as  24-hour emergency care. This is better, more responsive healthcare than many aliens have ever received in their entire lives.”

The New York Times claims that medical staff at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas “downplayed” the concerns Kheilin Domelis Valero Marcano and Stiven Jose Arrieta Prieto had about the medical condition of their 18-month-old daughter, Amalia Isabella Arrieta-Valero. The Biden administration released the Venezuelan family in 2024 after they entered the country illegally, according to DHS.

Marcano and Prieto claim, apparently through a lawyer, that medical staff delayed until Arrieta-Valero developed a fever that allegedly lasted 19 days and caused her to lose two pounds.

According to DHS, however, after Arrieta-Valero developed a respiratory condition, she “immediately received proper medical care and was admitted to the Methodist Children’s Hospital in San Antonio, Texas for treatment.”

She stayed at the hospital for eight days, and then a pediatrician approved her release. She was brought back to Dilley, where she received further medical monitoring and prescriptions.

Another claim in the hit piece is about Anastasiia Ekimovskaia, a 35-year-old illegal alien from Russia who entered the United States illegally on Oct. 6, 2025, who “reported no medical or mental health” concerns upon arrival at Dilley, DHS said.

The New York Times says DHS staff refused care to Ekimovskaia for hemorrhaging and bleeding “through six sanitary pads.” She was ultimately taken to a hospital, allegedly after “pleading with staff and after they demanded proof.” She showed the pads and was given a prescription that “took weeks to arrive” as “the bleeding continued.”

According to DHS, Ekimovskaia said she had side pain on Nov. 1, and disclosed a “history of kidney stones.” After consulting with the medical staff who “started appropriate treatment” and planned a future visit to revisit the situation, on Nov. 6, she sought care for “menstrual discomfort and heavy bleeding,” DHS said.

After going to Frio Regional Hospital upon referral from Dilley’s medical provider, she was “diagnosed with moderate heavy menstrual bleeding” and referred to an off-site obstetrician-gynecologist and had “multiple follow-up appointments.”

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University of Florida to stop ‘gender-affirming care’ for students

Laser hair removal and cross-sex hormones will no longer be provided to gender-confused students at the University of Florida starting this summer.

The student health center previously provided these services to gender-confused students to help them look like the opposite sex. However, the clinic cited federal and state policies in announcing its decision to cease offering the procedures effective May 1, according to the Alligator.

State data for 2018 to 2022 shows “over 700 patients underwent hormone replacement therapy, 90 received prescriptions for puberty blockers and 41 underwent gender-affirming surgery,” the student newspaper reported. However, this is across all University of Florida health centers, not just the student clinic.

A state law placing limits on both minors and adults receiving the drugs and surgeries is currently pending in the courts. The Supreme Court also upheld the rights of states to regulate the procedures for minors last summer. These procedures can include removing healthy reproductive organs or taking drugs that can lead to permanent infertility.

The pro-LGBT organization Equality Florida did not respond to two emails and a phone call in the past three weeks from The College Fix, asking for comment on the decision.

However, a critic of transgender ideology praised the decision in emailed comments to The Fix.

“Obviously, it’s a refreshingly sane decision, though they obviously made it for the wrong reasons – because of the state laws forcing them,” MassResistance President Brian Camenker told The Fix.

“But even just affirming that mental illness instead of treating it is destructive,” he said. “The whole idea of gender affirming care is medical quackery and clear malpractice.”

Camenker said gender-confused adults should be treated like others with a mental illness and he suggested there are underlying problems when someone says they are transgender.

“People need help healing from whatever traumas are behind this problem, and be given a pathway toward normalcy,” he said. “It should never involve the barbaric practice of hormones, puberty blockers, or medical procedures.”

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HHS Releases Medicaid Dataset to Crowdsource Fraud Detection

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released a massive data set related to health care spending. 

The release follows rampant fraud exposed in multiple government programs, including programs meant to feed hungry kids, help autistic kids, get kids into daycare, and help people find housing. One prosecutor alleged that criminals stole up to $9 billion across 14 social programs in Minnesota. 

If you have a computer with enough memory to download the data set and find fraud, then you could even get paid to expose fraud, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. 

The Treasury Department will set up a website to report fraud where whistleblowers can receive part of the fine, Secretary Scott Bessent said.

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RFK JR: $100 Billion a Year in Medicare and Medicaid Fraud, Mainly in Blue States

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said an estimated $100 billion is stolen each year from Medicare and Medicaid and outlined new efforts to detect and prevent fraud during a discussion with Theo Von.

Von asked Kennedy about what he discovered after reviewing operations within federal agencies.

“What were some of the biggest cases of fraud, like, when you got in there and got behind the curtain, see, like, you know, like the NIH, the EPA, like, just see what’s going on back there. What were some of the biggest cases of fraud that you kind of found?” Von asked.

Kennedy pointed to Medicare and Medicaid as the largest sources of fraud.

“I mean, the biggest cases are, what were we got between Medicaid and Medicare? There’s about 100 billion stolen every year, and a lot of it is like what’s happening in Minnesota with the Somali community and what’s happening now, even worse in California,” Kennedy said.

He described what he called systemic issues within the programs.

“But you know, one of the problems is that that’s a systemic problem, is that Medicaid, Medicare now no longer. It used to be that they that they paid for your medical treatment, your doctor’s visit, but now they pay for the person who takes you to the doctor, and they pay for home care, and they pay for a person to come in and pay your bills, right? So there, there’s, there’s all kinds of opportunities for fraud,” Kennedy said.

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Former Obama Adviser David Axelrod Gets Absolutely RIPPED on Social Media for Complaining About Rising Cost of Obamacare

David Axelrod, the Chicago Machine Democrat considered the ‘architect’ of Obama’s 2008 presidential run, recently complained on Twitter/X about the rising cost of healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare as it’s widely known.

Other Twitter/X users ripped into Axelrod, pointing out his involvement in this issue.

This has become a running theme among Democrats who desperately want the country to forget that Democrats passed Obamacare on an entirely party-line vote while they controlled everything in Washington during Obama’s first term.

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Leftist Medical Orgs Try To Shut Down Debate On Vaccines

Left-wing medical associations have banded together to block an upcoming federal meeting in an attempt to table vaccine discussion and debate in a public forum.  

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), set to meet Feb. 25-27, is expected to discuss the recently updated childhood vaccine schedule. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and its cohorts are attempting to suppress open exchange through a court-ordered injunction scheduled for a hearing on Feb. 13. 

Shouting Down Dissent 

In January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut the number of recommended vaccines for American children from 17 to 11 following an executive order to investigate the vaccine schedule. The comparative report found that the U.S. schedule demands far more injections than other developed nations. Several vaccines on the schedule had never undergone large-scale double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trials before being approved by the Food and Drug Administration, safety reviews have been incomplete or nonexistent for decades, and liability protections for vaccine makers incentivize production over protection.  

The update is reasonable, aligning the U.S. with most other developed nations; but the American Academy of Pediatrics responded with outrage, blasting the government’s “dangerous” decision-making and adding another complaint to its 2025 lawsuit against Health and Human Services (HHS). 

The updated recommendations are “causing unnecessary confusion … compromising access to lifesaving vaccines and weakening community protection,” railed American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Andrew D. Racine. A co-plaintiff organization official warned of the threat of “increased illness and suffering by children and their families,” if the updated schedule is enacted.  

None of this is expected based on comparative data, but the American Academy of Pediatrics’ response continues to follow the same pattern — shout down dissent and sue to suppress debate. 

In June, the American Academy of Pediatrics protested HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s removal of all 17 Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices members, calling Kennedy’s replacement picks “vaccine skeptics” and the overhaul “an escalating effort by the Administration to silence independent medical expertise and stoke distrust in lifesaving vaccines.” 

The group then sued Kennedy for allegedly violating federal law in changing Covid-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women, amended the suit multiple times with additional complaints, and filed for an injunction to stop Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices from meeting altogether later this month. 

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The Most Unsettling Reality About Modern Medicine

There’s a reason doctors love pushing vaccines. The more they inject, the more money they make.

The foot traffic alone brings in big money, but there’s another perverse incentive, and once you hear it, it will make you angry.

RFK Jr. explains: “Pediatricians who vaccinate 80-85% of the kids in their office, get these giant bonuses… And that’s why they throw you out of the office if you fight back…You’ll lose them their bonuses.”

Sadly, these perverse financial incentives aren’t limited to vaccines but across many areas of medicine.

Dig a little deeper, and another disturbing pattern appears. And once you see it, you’re left gobsmacked by how dark modern medicine has become.

The video below is haunting—not because the doctor in it is malicious, but because she genuinely believes she’s helping.

She’s an MD with a Master’s in Public Health, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a former leader at Georgetown. Her language is warm. Her intentions seem pure.

Yet this interview perfectly captures how public health has lost its way.

After conquering most deadly contagious diseases, it turned toward chronic illness—and failed.

Instead of questioning why children are getting sicker, it doubled down on vaccinating more, earlier, and without dissent, often dismissing safety concerns as heresy.

Watch this video. Then ask yourself what matters more in modern medicine: children’s outcomes—or institutional certainty.

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Is This the End of Transgender Hysteria?

A few years ago, things looked pretty bleak for skeptics of transgenderism — those of us who have great compassion for those afflicted by what the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders long referred to as the “disorder” of gender dysphoria, but who refuse to accept the lie that a man can become a woman or a woman can become a man.

During the 2020 presidential race, then-candidate Joe Biden tweeted, “Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.” As president in 2023, Biden followed up by stating, “Transgender people are some of the bravest Americans I know.” That same year, the transgender fad achieved unprecedented reach among impressionable youngsters: While Gallup reported that (an already-high) 7 percent of all Americans identified as LGBTQ, that number soared to 20 percent of all Gen Z — and as high as 38 percent on some elite Ivy League campuses. 

But the social craze began to face setbacks. In the UK, the National Health Service’s Cass Review cast substantial doubt on the underlying scientific evidence purporting to support “gender-affirming care.” Enterprising investigative journalists, such as Christopher F. Rufo, began to expose rampant ethical concerns with America’s gender clinics. Polling began to reflect broader concerns with the transgender narrative on issues such as women’s athletic competition. President Donald Trump, intuiting that law can shape culture just as culture can shape law, signed numerous transgender-related executive orders in the first few weeks of his second term.

Now, it seems the dam may be breaking.

In a landmark legal judgment on Jan. 30, a 22-year-old biological woman named Fox Varian was awarded $2 million in the Westchester County Supreme Court. Varian, a “detransitioner,” had an irreversible double mastectomy when she was 16 years old. The New York court held her psychologist and surgeon liable for $1.6 million for past and future suffering, and an additional $400,00 for any future medical expenses. Varian, whose mother initially opposed the operation but consented following the surgeon’s “emphatic” insistence, became deeply depressed following the procedure. Now, she has become the first “detransitioner” to win a medical malpractice lawsuit at trial.

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