Caveat Emptor.

       When I was a young doctor, long long ago, in a land far away,(Ireland,England) doctors were forbidden to advertise.  It was a cardinal sin, unprofessional behaviour for which you might lose your license permanently and certainly at least a suspension.  Indeed, physicians were often disciplined for getting themselves into the press without overt advertising or extravagant claims.   I was amazed on arrival in  the New World to find that American doctors (not so much in Canada) thought advertising their own skills was quite acceptable, although they frequently sounded quite extravagant to  me.  In more recent years, as the hyperbole increased, many of these physicians sounded increasingly like snake oil salesmen in their claims and fraudulent in their promises.  Listening to claims on both radio and television suggested that  they had something special to offer above and  beyond what I know is justifiable.   
          Therefore I was disturbed but not as surprised as I might have otherwise been to read of the strange case of Dr.Farid Fata, aged fifty.  Dr.Fata, a Lebanese American physician, pleaded guilty to giving cancer treatments to many patients who did not have cancer in the first place and misdiagnosing many more.   He dishonestly collected $17.6 million from medicare, (did that not arouse some suspicion?), received kickbacks and was also charged with money laundering.  His patients, many of  them without any form of cancer received dangerous chemotherapy for years.  The testimony of his patients read like horror stories.

 “Rather than use his medical degree to save lives, Dr. Fata instead destroyed them in pursuit of profit,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell.  “Time and again, Dr. Fata ca llously violated his patients’ trust as he used false cancer diagnoses and unwarranted and dangerous treatments as tools to steal millions of dollars from Medicare, even stooping to profit from the last days of some patients’ lives.  While no sentence can restore what was taken from his patients and their families, the sentence imposed ensures that never again will Dr. Fata lay hands on another patient.”

“Health care fraud has been a serious problem in Michigan, but no case has been as egregious as the conduct of Dr. Farid Fata,” said U.S. Attorney McQuade.  “Dr. Fata did not care for patients; he exploited them as commodities.  He over-treated, under-treated and outright lied to patients about whether they had cancer so that he could maximize his own profits.”

        He was sentenced to 45 years in prison but  that does little to help the patients who's lives he destroyed.  
          It amazes me that Fata got away with this for years and was apparently apprehended because a newly hired young physician noted something amiss and sought advice.  He had  many associates who apparently failed to notice any irregularity.
       How an army of health care administridiots can have missed millions of dollars of fraudulent billing to medicare is another story that needs extensive investigation.
        Unfortunately, his exposure and imprisonment, for the rest of his life, does little to compensate for the suffering and health consequences to his former patients.
Caveat Emptor!