Need opinions ASAP

[yard dawg]

The wife works for a dental corporation as an assisstant in one of there offices. Recently the people she works with found out that the office manager is embezzaling(sp) money. She has been taking the cash payments from clients and then deleting the records on the computer of them being on the schedule that day. There are other computer things she is doing too but i wont bore you. This woman makes the deposits so she can mess with the numbers.

The wife has to document everything they do to a patient so there is a paper trail just no computer trail. The company policy is that if you see this going on you must report it or be fired. They reported it to the corporate office and they told everyone involved to shut up and leave it alone. They said nothing was wrong after they checked it out. There is no way this woman is doing right. The Dr cant do anything because hes a contracted guy its not his practice. This is his money because he gets a percentage of what the office does. Hes being screwed too. He called his liason between the corporate office and his office and that guy checked out the records and said she had been doing this scam for a long long time and was sloppy. HE GOT HIS BUTT CHEWED OUT BY THE CORPORATE PEOPLE WHEN HE GAVE THEM HIS STORY and was told to be quiet about it too that nothing was wrong.

I need to hear from someone about the issues here legally. My wife cant just up and quit because im out of work and there arent any decent jobs here available. Does this look like the 2 women at the top are involved too?
Why would anyone ignore embezzling? The evidence is there. The charts have every procedure documented and this lady deletes the computer to show no one was there. Her boyfriends chart is missing and he has been there for many many free procedures like a zoom etc... Should the wife be watching her back? Does it look like a set up to anyone??? If it were possible she would quit yesterday but its not.

[Vass]

Sounds like it's not embezzlement and instead is a tax dodge- Cash is easy to hide. Credit cards, checks, not so much. She may be deleting the records & using the cash elsewhere in the practice to avoid paying Uncle Sam.

Or it may be that it's some sort of a scheme to work some sort of Medicare fraud.

Document, document, document & then document some more. Document everything, even if it's just handwritten & dated and keep it somewhere OUT OF THE OFFICE. Write down times, dates, and people spoken to trying to get to the bottom of it. If somewhere down the road there is a problem, or some sort of retaliation comes to bear on your wife, go to a lawyer with everything you have.

It may be that there IS nothing wrong. But it certainly does sound suspicious.

EDIT: On reflection I'm thinking more Medicare fraud. I believe companies submit medicare cost reports. It's possible that these "cash paying" patients are being tagged as medicare patients. The cost reports reflect the proportion of normal to medicare clients of a medical practice & reimburse accordingly.

Thinking out loud- Who pays cash for medical care? People who hate credit cards, perhaps, but more likely people who can't get them, or don't have bank accounts, or have to use cash-checking businesses- ie, people not of means, people who probably have had medicare claims in the past...so if they paid cash for treatment, and that cash was diverted, a medicare claim could be submitted, basically getting double-paid for the patient, and who is the wiser? These patients have likely been on some sort of medicare list before, and if you went to check out their income, they probably are not super-loaded.

Total speculation on my part, but I can't see how hiding cash helps anyone unless they're defrauding the treasury or defrauding medicare.

FYI- not that this is a motivation, but I do believe that those who whistleblow on medicare fraud get paid a percentage of whatever the government nails the company for- ie, there's basically a bounty on medicare fraud.

Vass

[fett]

It sounds like your wife is in the clear. But be prepared for the whole thing blowing up. All I can give is a personal experience when the Top People do this kind of shit. I used to work for a stocks broker-dealer. I was on the trading desk. I was a VP.:ROTF: I just did my job. When the lid blew off this joint, I was in the clear. The President of the firm, a very nice but gullible lady, had to spend $20,000 in legal fees just to clear her name. There are also "Whistle Blower" laws if you wife gets fired around this.

[yard dawg]

I dont think its medicare because these are people with insurance. The part the insurance doesnt pay is the patients part plus a co pay. There was this one guy who came in and pays cash for everything. He paid $2000 for crowns and other work and then disappeared of the schedule. Thats the scam. They charted all the work on this man and have the chart. The office manager just removed him from the schedule so there is no proff he was there on the computer. Im not sure about the bank deposits because no one has seen them but why would you continually delete cash paying patients? This could get ugly fast. I will tell her to document evrything she sees. Times,dates and patients.

Also This manager has a restarant scam too. She does this every week at least once. She'll go into a high end eatery and order a expensive meal then call the eatery later and complain to get comped. She does this and admits it freely. Shes done it one a $150 tab before.

[Spivonious]

Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?

[Carbuff]

Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?

Translated: "Why bother voting anymore?"

[Reverend Timmy]

There's a revolution calling,revolution calling............

[zeegler]

Personally, I would send an anonymous letter to the IRS. If this woman is embezzling, or just hiding cash flow, the IRS would be interested in either, and will nail her crooked ass to the wall.

[RacerX]

I like Zeeg's idea. CC the local District Attorney.

[Tashtego]

If it were me I'd want to talk to a lawyer first. Someone who does employment / whistleblowing cases in my state, in my area. Knows the judges and lawyers in the juristiction etc.

[chrisolson]

Medicare fraud is a felony. Contact you attorney general. And the press - they love this shit.

[chrisolson]

She'll go into a high end eatery and order a expensive meal then call the eatery later and complain to get comped. She does this and admits it freely. Shes done it one a $150 tab before.

Cunt...

BTW - if the office sees any patients on public assistance, the office could/will be shut down.