Healthcare fraud and abuse Essays

Healthcare fraud and abuse Essays Healthcare fraud and abuse Paper Healthcare fraud and abuse Paper As a Denzel Washington fan, I remembered a movie a couple of years back with a relation to health care entitled John Q.   It depicts a man undergoing hardships to get his son a heart transplant because his HMO would not cover it due to his employee status. Although the plot did not center on health care per se, it got me thinking about how far my own HMO coverage would go. This paper aims to tackle 3 types of abuse and fraud in healthcare in order to prevent and direct much needed resources to those deserving. Along with the advances that we have achieved come those with ill-intent out to further themselves hence health care fraud and abuse.   This is defined in Qui Tam FYI as, â€Å"deceptive means used by an organization to profit from government healthcare agreements. That definition has more recently been extended to include not only deception, but also unreasonable ignorance of the rules.† In 1985, to combat the growing threats against this criminal activity, the NHCAA or National Health Care Antifraud Association was established and has turned to become the leading American organization directed towards health insurance fraud. Their mission statement: â€Å"To protect and serve the public interest by increasing awareness and improving the detection, investigation, civil and criminal prosecution and prevention of health care fraud.†3   Ã‚  We go on to discuss the different type of fraud and abuse. The most rampant is the misrepresentation of goods and services.   A concrete example is when someone is treated for a common cold but when forwarded to the HMO it would appear that the patient was tested for pneumonia and a full blood test was conducted when no such activity was done. The hospital or clinic would then receive compensation for something which was fictitious.   A simple way to prevent this would be to confirm with the person examined unless they were in on it too. Another is padding the costs of medical services and medicines.   Purchase prices for medicine are sometimes marked up 200% onwards under the guise of increased cost. With services however, the modus operandi is billing for each separate exam rather than the comprehensive package therefore increasing the total price.   Both instances would increase revenues while maintaining overhead costs. Lastly, some institutions recommend treatment or exams which are unnecessary.   They plague on people’s fears and tell them it is better safe than to be sorry.   The difference between this example and the first one is that the tests actually took place.   It was just not needed.   In the person suffering from the cold example, a doctor could say that he needs to go through a battery of tests in order to eliminate other possibilities when the symptoms shown were very negligible or unfounded. Healthcare fraud and abuse is covered in the United States by the Federal False Claims Act.   This law protects victims and with penalties like fines and in sever cases even prison sentences.   It provides that any citizen can on the behalf of the government, file a case against companies or persons engaged in misrepresented activities and also protects that citizen from legal repercussions. Medical insurance companies also hire independent auditors and investigators to validate the claims made by clients and establishments to defend against potential loss from swindlers. â€Å"In 2003, health care costs paid to hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, diagnostic laboratories, pharmacies, medical device manufacturers and other components of the health care system, consumed 26.3 percent of the GDP of the United States, the largest of any country in the whole wide world.† That amount of money will attract people with ill-intent who always try to make a quick buck.   This will be a continuing fight from organizations like the NHCAA and governments who want to make sure that persons who deserve medical assistance will always get it. Reference List World Health Organization Report. (2000). Why do health systems matter?   WHO Qui Tam FYI.   â€Å"What is health care fraud?† retrieved 9 March 2008 from quitamfyi.com/healthcare-fraud.html National Health Care Antifraud Association.   Mission Statement retrieved 9 March 2008 from nhcaa.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=about_nhcaawpscode=WhoWeAre Wikipedia article on health care.   (2008) â€Å"Health Care† retrieved 9 March 2008

Explain why Hindus might feel that many different gods and goddesses E

Explain why Hindus might feel that many different gods and goddesses E Explain why Hindus might feel that many different gods and goddesses Leana Parham Module 6 writing #3 Andre Key Question: Explain why Hindus might feel that many different gods and goddesses are necessary to provide different symbolic lenses for them to think about ultimate reality. "There can be as many Hindu Gods as there are devotees to suit the moods, feelings, emotions and social backgrounds of the devotees." So in some ways Hinduism is a polytheistic religion. There is an exceedingly wide variety of gods to choose from to worship with statues and symbols to pay homage before. If one wants to pray for acquiring knowledge and understanding, he would pray to the god, Sarasati, for example. One might pray to the god, Moksha, to obtain God's grace. Many Hindus worship their own village god or goddess. However, to say that Hinduism is a polytheistic religion with an unknown and unnamed number of Gods would be incorrect. Many Hindus view the religion as a monotheistic religion with only one Supreme Being who is formless and impersonal. All other gods and goddesses are simply facets of this one God. This Supreme Being is viewed as the god of all other religions and equal to all existence or the ultimate reality. In the Hindu faith, there is a trinity as in the Christian faith, where God is in three persons: Brahma: is the creator of all reality, Vishnu or Krishna is the preserver of all of the creations, and Shiva is the destroyer. There are some major divisions in the Hindu faith. Many see Brahman as the ultimate deity. Others see Vishnu or Krishna as the Supreme Being and another sect see Shiva as their ultimate reality. Hinduism is a religion which does recognize a single supreme deity but is tolerant of all other religions and gods or goddesses as forms or manifestations of this one single deity or Supreme Being. Their philosophy is that, although they believe there is but one truth, there are different "Sages" or spiritual leaders who call the truth by different names. Besides these Gods and Goddesses there are a number of other Gods and Goddesses. To name a few of them, there is Ganesh; who has an elephant's head and he is also a son of Shiva and Parvati, Hanuman; who is an ape, Surya; Lord of sun, Ganga Ma; Goddess of river Ganges; Samundra; Lord of the sea, Indra; king of the Gods (but he isn't an important God), Prithvi; Goddess of earth, Shakti; Goddess of strength. The Hindus call their Goddesses 'Ma' meaning mother. Not all of these Gods are worshiped by all Hindus. Some Hindus worship only Vishnu. Others worship only Shiva. Others worship only the Goddesses and call these Goddesses collectively as Shakti meaning strength. Many of these Goddess worshipers worship Parvati in her images as Kali or Durga. People who worship Shiva or Vishnu also worship characters and images connected with these Gods. Vishnu worshipers (Vaishnaites) also worship his appearances. Shiva's worshipers (Shaivites) also worship images of bull called Nandi, who was Shiva's carrier and a unique stone design connected to Shiva. There are also Hindus who worship all the Gods. There are some Gods who are worshiped all over India like Rama and Krishna and other Gods who are worshiped more in one region than the other like Ganesh who is worshiped mainly in west India. Hindus also worship Gods according to their personal needs. People who engage in wrestling, body building and other physical sports worship Hanuman, who in Hindu legends was an ape with lot of physical strength. Businessmen worship Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth. Though these Hindus worship different idols, there are many Hindus who believe in one God and perceive in these different Gods and Goddesses as different images of the same one God. According to their beliefs idolatry is the wrong interpretation of Hinduism. Hindus believe in reincarnation. The basic belief is that a person's fate is determined according to his deeds. These deeds in Hinduism are called 'Karma'. A soul who does good Karma in this life will be awarded with a better life in the next incarnation. Souls who do bad Karma will be punished for their sins, if not

Techniques used in the separation and identification of chemical Essay

Techniques used in the separation and identification of chemical compound and their real world applications - Essay Example In this technique, the sample to be analyzed is passed through an adsorbent. The components of the mixture will interact with it differently, resulting in separation of the elements (Scoog & Holler, 1992). HPLC has a wide range of application, for example it is used in pharmaceutical companies in the separation of vitamin C, and it also applied in the legal profession by detecting illegal substances such as cocaine in the urine (Ballinger et al., 2011). HPLC can be said to be a mass transfer process that involves adsorption. A typical HPLC instrument has a detector, sampler and a pump. The sampler is used to collect the sample, then the pump is used to pass sample through a mobile phase, which mostly consist of an adsorbent such as silica gel. In the mobile phase, the sample mixture will separate because they have different adsorption rates. It is this difference in adsorption rates that HPLC principle relies on. Finally, the detector is used to separate the different components (Kebbekus & Mitra, 1998). HPLC is one of the most preferred technique in the food industries. It is mostly used in the quality control. HPLC is preferred to other techniques, because it is cheap to maintain and it does not need a very qualified personnel to run it (Ballinger et al., 2011). An example, where HPLC is applied is the sugar cane industries. After sugar cane has been crushed, it is always squeezed to remove the juice. The juice is then treated with chemicals to kill any fungi which is available in it. It is at this stage, where HPLC finds its use. This is because some of the chemicals always remain in the final product. In connection to this, HPLC is always used to determine, if there are any traces of the chemicals in the final sugar. If there are any, it is then taken back for treatment (Scoog &Holler, 1992). The main limitation of this technique is that it cannot be used for very complex chemical elements. In