Synopsis: (March 2009 to July 2012)
I owned a busy solo family practice clinic in the rural town of Hawthorne, Florida.
Ten years later I sold it, financing most of the purchase price. The buyer defaulted on the loan within two months and I foreclosed after nine. In that interval the buyer borrowed from banks and individuals against falsified collateral. (Two years later she was granted Chapter 7 bankruptcy for the $12 million she borrowed--money that "disappeared.")
She paid no attention to clinic operations, focusing her attention instead on selling equipment, collecting receivables, and using the office as a front for securing contributions and loans. She kept me at bay by filing a countersuit and, more successfully, by telling Medicare and the FBI that I sold her a clinic that had committed fraud. She also led them to believe that my new office, Colasante Clinic--opened when I couldn't repossess the one I'd sold--was fraudulent.
My foreclosure proceedings were halted by the countersuit. In addition, the FBI fell for the buyer's ruse, and its agents raided my new clinic, taking all the patient charts. The FBI also raided my personal and business bank accounts. There were no grounds for the raid or seizures, but the government's powers, granted via statutes in HIPAA and other legislation, seem to be limitless.
I filed for a hearing requesting that the government's agents return the patient charts, refund the forfeited money, and open the affidavits explaining why the clinic was raided. The judge granted none of the requests. Lawyers have said, one by one, that their hands are tied--there is no recourse against a government that has been given so much statutory power. I may even be raided again. The statute of limitations allowing the affidavits to remain secret is seven years.
My license is still intact and the clinic remains open, operating in the same manner as always. If I am doing something fraudulent, I don't know what it is and no one in the government seems interested in clarifying the matter or helping me to stop.
Ten years later I sold it, financing most of the purchase price. The buyer defaulted on the loan within two months and I foreclosed after nine. In that interval the buyer borrowed from banks and individuals against falsified collateral. (Two years later she was granted Chapter 7 bankruptcy for the $12 million she borrowed--money that "disappeared.")
She paid no attention to clinic operations, focusing her attention instead on selling equipment, collecting receivables, and using the office as a front for securing contributions and loans. She kept me at bay by filing a countersuit and, more successfully, by telling Medicare and the FBI that I sold her a clinic that had committed fraud. She also led them to believe that my new office, Colasante Clinic--opened when I couldn't repossess the one I'd sold--was fraudulent.
My foreclosure proceedings were halted by the countersuit. In addition, the FBI fell for the buyer's ruse, and its agents raided my new clinic, taking all the patient charts. The FBI also raided my personal and business bank accounts. There were no grounds for the raid or seizures, but the government's powers, granted via statutes in HIPAA and other legislation, seem to be limitless.
I filed for a hearing requesting that the government's agents return the patient charts, refund the forfeited money, and open the affidavits explaining why the clinic was raided. The judge granted none of the requests. Lawyers have said, one by one, that their hands are tied--there is no recourse against a government that has been given so much statutory power. I may even be raided again. The statute of limitations allowing the affidavits to remain secret is seven years.
My license is still intact and the clinic remains open, operating in the same manner as always. If I am doing something fraudulent, I don't know what it is and no one in the government seems interested in clarifying the matter or helping me to stop.
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