FASHION – MUSIC – FOOD

Live Performance by: WD-HAN

Where: CCHR Florida | 305 North Fort Harrison Ave | Clearwater | FL | 33755

When: Sunday, August 14, 2011, 6pm – 8pm

Tickets: $7 per person

Proceeds: All proceeds go to Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida Youth Group Events.

Call for more information: (727) 442-8820

WASHINGTON – A Miami-area psychiatrist pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Miami for his part in a fraud scheme that resulted in the submission of more than $200 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, the Department of Justice, FBI and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced.

Dr. Alan Gumer, 64, of Tamarac, Fla., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.   Gumer was charged on Feb. 15, 2011, with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and four counts of health care fraud.

According to court documents, Gumer was a psychiatrist at American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC), a Florida corporation headquartered in Miami.   ATC purported to operate partial hospitalization programs (PHPs) in seven different locations throughout South Florida and Orlando.  A PHP is a form of intensive treatment for severe mental illness.

To Read Full Article: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/June/11-crm-871.html

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to:   http://www.stopmedicarefraud.gov/

It isn’t any wonder that parents can get convinced that their child has ADHD. There is so much money being poured into the marketing of this label and the prescription drugs that go with it.  What most parents are not told is that there are no medical tests to evidence the diagnosis of ADHD.  There isn’t a brain scan, not a blood test, nor a chemical imbalance test that can prove that ADHD does exist.  In fact, there are medical tests that are done by Medical professionals that can show nutritional deficiencies, allergies, or anyone of a number of underlying physical causes of unwanted behavior.  In addition, children 100 years ago, were simply accepted and loved for their endless energy and creativity. 

Florida has its own, “Michael Phelps” and this is his story! When Austin was 6 years old he was tested in the first grade and the results showed that he was a gifted and bright student.  He was very active, asked a lot of questions, had a lot of creative ideas and an endless imagination.  His mom regarded those qualities as nothing other than positive.

However, she learned, all to well, that the school system did not view them that way.  The school personnel described Austin as disruptive, annoying, unfocused and non-conforming. The discrepancy between this description and what his mom had learned through his first grade testing, of his giftedness, didn’t make sense.  His mother took Austin to get further “testing” and was told that her son had ADHD, Oppositional Defiance Disorder and Specific Learning Disability.

An ADHD drug, Adderall, was prescribed, and against her better instincts, his mom gave it to him.  Austin’s mom kept a journal the entire time he was on the drug.  She said that he began to not sleep well, he was having nightmares, losing too much weight and experiencing very strange thoughts.  He told her he had curse words in his head and they wouldn’t go away. 

When Austin’s mother brought him to the Doctor and expressed her concerns, the doctor simply increased the dosage of Adderall.  One day, shortly after this, Austin turned to his mother and told her that it would be better if he were dead.  Sitting at the computer one night, his mom looked up as Austin said “Look mom, my heart you can see it beating”.  In fact, she could.  There he was sitting perfectly still and it looked like he had been running a marathon.

Shortly thereafter, Austin was safely weaned off Adderall, with the help of an acupuncturist and a homeopathic doctor.  At this point, his mom and dad noticed his affinity for swimming and decided to encourage this ability.  Austin has been swimming ever since.  He has won medals and is now working on his eligibility for the Junior Olympics.  His mom will tell you that it has been a long road, where she had to sift through the facts versus the fiction where it comes to the diagnosis of ADHD.  She did contact two different non-profit organizations, Able-Child and the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida, to help get the facts.  It’s led to a better life for Austin and for his family.  One day soon we will see him up on the platform accepting his Gold Medal! 

We need to help inform others about the facts!  There are so many young people whose futures are trusted in our keep.  They deserve, and you deserve the best chance they can have!

Benoit just got his psychologist license revoked by the state and was fined $30,000.  He is also wanted in

Jackson County, Florida for failure to appear on a charge of battery.

Psychiatrist’s license revoked [he's actually a psychologist]

Doctor wanted in Jackson County

By MORGAN CARLSON and DEBORAH BUCKHALTER
November 21, 2010

A Jackson County doctor has had his psychiatry license revoked after the state found he violated multiple laws while he was employed at Florida State Hospital, including sexual misconduct with a patient.

The doctor, Jeffrey Lynn Benoit, is also wanted in Jackson County for failure to appear on a charge of battery. A warrant was issued on Sept. 10, according to Major Donnie Branch with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

In April of this year, Benoit and his second wife were both arrested in Jackson County n domestic violence charges. They both failed to appear and warrants for their arrest were issued. The woman was picked up on the battery warrant and several other warrants in October.

Benoit is still wanted in Jackson County.

The Chattahoochee Police Department has jurisdiction over Florida State Hospital. The Department of Health is supposed to report criminal violations to the proper prosecuting authority. As of September, the Chattahoochee Police Department had not received any information from the Department of Health in regard to Benoit, according to an investigator with the police department.

Chattahoochee Police Department officials could not be reached Friday regarding Benoit’s case. It is not known if the police department has an open investigation on Benoit.

An official at the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office said Friday there are no active warrants in the county for Benoit.

The Florida Board of Psychology revoked Benoit’s license on Nov. 10, after it reviewed a detailed administrative complaint filed on July 8 by the Department of Health that alleged multiple violations of Florida statutes, according to the final order from the board.

The first count was committing any act upon a patient that would constitute sexual misconduct. The second was making misleading, deceptive, untrue or fraudulent representation in the practice of the profession of psychology.

The third count was failing to meet the minimum standard of performance in professional activities when measured against generally prevailing peer performance, including the undertaking of activities for which the licensee is not qualified by training or experience.

The board found Benoit violated the third count by marrying his patient while he was still married to his first wife, according to the complaint.

According to the final order from the Board of Psychology, Benoit was given the opportunity, but didn’t reply to the administrative complaint, “nor contested the factual allegations.”

The board found the allegations in the administrative complaint to be factual, and approved and adopted the complaint, revoking Benoit’s license and fining him $43,182 in total.

he complaint details a series of events involving Benoit and his patient-turned-wife that occurred over more than three years and started at the Florida State Hospital. According to the complaint, Benoit’s patient was committed to Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee in February 2008, after she was arrested on two arson charges in Jackson County.

In those incidents, she allegedly set a bed on fire in a hotel room on Oct. 22, 2007, and did the same on Oct. 24, 2007 at a different hotel.

An evaluation carried out after the alleged incidents determined her to be incompetent to proceed to trial, due to mental illness. She was assigned to Benoit’s care shortly after being admitted to the hospital in Chattahoochee in February.

The Department of Health wrote that the woman was diagnosed with depression with psychotic features, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

After several treatment sessions, the department alleges Benoit began making sexually suggestive remarks to the woman. The department also alleges that one day he locked his office door and kissed her.

Beginning in or around May 2008, the department alleges Benoit began having sexual relations with her in his office at Florida State Hospital, while she was still his patient.

He allegedly brought her gifts and told her he was not married, although he was, according to the administrative complaint.

In May, the woman’s recovery team determined that she was competent to proceed with her court case. A hearing was set for June 13, 2008.

he day before the hearing was to take place, Benoit wrote to the court advising of the woman’s ongoing need for treatment, her current anxiety and condition, adding he felt she was still competent to proceed to trial.

But later the same day, Benoit sent a second letter to the court, saying he felt she was not competent to face the charges in court. No hearing was held on June 13. A hearing was conducted about a month later, however, on July 15, 2008, and she was determined not guilty by reason of insanity in the Jackson County arson cases. He was ordered committed, and remained at Florida State Hospital.

he administrative complaint states that, a few days later, Benoit moved out of the house he shared with his wife, telling her he wanted a divorce and that he wanted to keep the matter quiet.

Around the same time, in late July, Benoit’s unit supervisor asked him to stop treating the victim because “he seemed to be losing objectivity” with regard to the patient. She was transferred to the care of another psychologist.

In his last progress notes on the woman that month, Benoit noted he believed she was ready for discharge.

In August 2008, he wrote to the woman’s attorney and advised that he’d been taken off her treatment team, and wouldn’t be able to write a report to the court recommending discharge.

He also told the attorney that he and the woman’s current recovery team disagreed on her suitability for discharge. He asked the lawyer to submit paperwork to the ourt on the woman’s behalf seeking her discharge.

Later in August, Benoit allegedly sent an e-mail about her upcoming competency hearing to his superior at Florida State Hospital, the same individual who had taken him off the woman’s case.

Benoit indicated in his e-mail that a court date had been set in her case and that he would be required to testify. He asked permission to meet with the woman twice before the hearing “for a duration of one to one-and-one-half hours for each meeting to evaluate (the woman’s) mental status and functioning.”

he superior wrote back, asking if Benoit was the woman’s private psychologist. Benoit said no, but reminded his superior of his role as a past evaluator and treatment provider.

he next day, the superior denied Benoit’s request to meet with and evaluate the woman, pointing out that Benoit was no longer part of the treatment team. Benoit was also ordered not to testify at the hearing, according to the complaint. In spite of that, he testified at the September hearing “against the orders of FSH,” according to the complaint, and offered an opinion that did not match her newly assigned team’s analysis.

He said in that hearing that she should be discharged. Her current psychologist said she wasn’t ready to leave the facility.

The hearing judge decided to release the woman, but with the understanding that she would follow the terms of a conditional release plan.

After Benoit testified against orders, Florida State Hospital took disciplinary actions, removing him from all resident contact and responsibilities the next day.

he woman was released the day after, diagnosed with major depressive disorder, recurrent and severe, with psychotic features in partial remission and with prolonged post-traumatic stress disorder.

The day of her release, another FSH employee reported seeing Benoit at the woman’s home.

Department of Health investigators also learned that Benoit had sent the woman’s mother a cashier’s check for $1,400, to help pay for rent and other expenses. When confronted about his visits and the check, Benoit admitted having visited the woman several times after she was discharged, but denied having sent the check. Eventually, he admitted giving the money and said he did so “just out of the kindness of my heart.” He said he had no personal relationship with the former patient.

Benoit resigned from Florida State Hospital on Oct. 1, 2008. His notice of separation reflects that he was the subject of an FSH investigation at the time his employment ended, and that he was resigning in lieu of dismissal.

Before long, Benoit and the woman were living together. The Department of Health complaint states that a warranty deed reflects Benoit and the woman bought a home in Marianna for $377,000 in February 2009.

A certificate of marriage from Houston County, Ala., shows they were married in Dothan on March 26, 2009, while Benoit was still legally married to his first wife. His first marriage was not dissolved until October 2009.

As of June 3, 2009, the woman and Benoit were no longer in a steady relationship. According to the department, she stated she was afraid of Benoit. However, the two have reconciled and separated at least once after that time.

She gave birth to a son in March of this year, with Benoit named as the father on the birth certificate.

FloriDUH

Weird, wacky, strange news from the Sunshine State

Psychologist accused of bigamy after marrying a patient

By Barbara Hijek

August 24, 2010

Jeffrey Lynn Benoit former Florida State Psychologist

Jeffrey Lynn Benoit, a former Florida State Hospital psychologist, is accused of having sexual relations with a patient he was treating there, then marrying her while he was still married to someone else, reports the Jackson County Floridian in Marianna.

According to the Department of Health, the woman Benoit allegedly married was committed to Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee in February 2008, after being arrested on two arson charges in Jackson County for allegedly setting a bed on fire in two different hotel rooms in October 2007. The woman was deemed incompetent for trial due to mental illness and was assigned to Benoit’s care shortly after being admitted to the hospital in Chattahoochee, reports the Floridan.

By May 2008, the department alleges Benoit began having sexual relations with the woman in his office at Florida State Hospital – while she was still his patient, according to the Floridan.

Eventually, in July 2008, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the arson cases and ordered committed, remaining in the Florida State Hospital, reports the Floridan.

Benoit’s unit supervisor asked him to stop treating the alleged victim because “he seemed to be losing objectivity” with regard to the patient. She was transferred to the care of another psychologist, according to the Floridan.

Even though Benoit was no longer her doctor, he advocated for the woman’s release, even though her new treatment team did not agree with his assessment. He was told not to testify on her behalf during a hearing concerning her suitability to be released, but he did so anyway, according to the Floridan.

After Benoit testified against orders, Florida State Hospital took disciplinary actions, removing him from all resident contact and responsibilities the next day, reports the Floridan.

The day the woman was released, a FSH employee reported seeing Benoit at the woman’s home. Before long, Benoit and the woman were living together, reports the Floridan.

The Department of Health complaint states that a warranty deed shows Benoit and the woman bought a home in Marianna for $377,000 in February 2009. And a certificate of marriage from Houston County, Ala., shows they were married in Dothan in March 2009 – while Benoit was still legally married to his first wife, reports the Floridan.

She gave birth to a son in March of this year, naming Benoit as the father on the birth certificate. They were both arrested a month later on domestic violence charges, according to the Department of Health complaint.

In asking the Board of Psychology for sanctions against Benoit, the Department of Health cited sexual misconduct, claiming the woman was incapable of giving “valid, informed, free consent to sexual activity” with Benoit, reports the Floridan.

At FloriDUH Headquarters we wonder who does the hiring at Chattahoochee State Hospital?

Psych News
Psychologist agrees to cease practicing
By Ken Kramer

Jun 1st, 2010

In a case that gained national notoriety, a Tampa psychologist, Daniel R. Lerom, has relinquished his license.

According to an administrative complaint filed by the Department of Health, Lerom had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a female patient. Throughout their sexual relationship, Lerom regulary asked the patient to give him her prescription drugs. He also billed her insurance company for the sexual encounters.

In January, the Department of Health filed an emergency suspension order on Lerom’s license.

The patient filed a lawsuit against Lerom in Hillsborough County Court, but further records are unavailable as the case is now sealed.

Lerom voluntarily agreed to cease practicing psychology in Florida and also agreed to never reapply for a Florida healthcare license.

Sex with a patient is a felony in Florida.

Lakeland Ledger

Psychologist Agrees to Give Up License to Avoid Disciplinary Action Involving Sexual Harassment

June 1, 2010

A Tampa psychologist has relinquished his license to practice in Florida to avoid further state disciplinary action involving an accusation he had sex with a Lakeland woman he counseled.

Daniel R. Lerom also was accused of billing the woman’s insurance company for “specialty consult” sessions at times when those trysts were suspected to have occurred.

He was also accused of repeatedly asking for, and getting, prescription pain medicines from her.

The state suspended his license in January.

In giving up his psychology license, Lerom agreed never to apply for a license to practice a health-care profession licensed by the Florida Department of Health.

Jerome Feldman, Former Psychiatrist

Former doctor imprisoned 16 years for phony organ transplant scam 

By John O’Brien 

May 27th, 2010 

A former psychiatrist was sent to prison for 16 years today for duping seriously ill people out of $400,000 with false promises of organ transplants in the Philippines. 

U.S. District Judge David Hurd sentenced Jerome Feldman to 15 years and 8 months in prison and ordered him to repay $2 million to the victims of the phony organ-transplant scheme and an earlier Medicare fraud in Florida. 

Feldman Feldman pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud charges for luring five people to the Philippines for life-saving organ transplants. He’d set up a web site where patients sought quick access to transplants because they were desperate for a life-saving organ transplant. 

Feldman, 69, whose estranged wife lives in Baldwinsville, apologized in court as he stood in an orange jail uniform and handcuffs. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t return – didn’t make refunds,” Feldman said.

His lawyer, federal Public Defender James Greenwald, told the judge that Feldman did help three of the five victims get organ transplants in the Philippines. Greenwald acknowledged that Feldman falsely represented his relationship with the doctors there and overcharged the patients.

“He’s not the monster or ogre the government makes him out to be,” Greenwald said in court.

Those patients who did get transplants did so only because they made their own arrangements in the Philippines when they arrived and realized Feldman was a fraud using an alias, Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla Freedman said. They had wired thousands of dollars to Feldman’s bank account then flew to Manila only to realize he’d made no arrangements for the transplants, Freedman said.

One of the patients who got an organ “is alive today in spite of the defendant,” Freedman said. She said the patient went to a surgeon’s office on his own and Feldman went with him. Feldman then asked the secretary if the surgeon could take the patient, Freedman said.

The patients had to pay legitimate medical expenses for the transplants on top of the amounts they’d paid to Feldman, she said.

Another patient, Erwin Benke of Edmonton, Canada, flew to the Philippines in 2008 after paying $70,000 to Feldman in a last-ditch effort for a liver transplant. Benke waited six months before he died there without a transplant, Freedman said. His common-law wife, Victoria Langier, was not with him.

“She will never be able to live with the fact that she wasn’t with her husband in the last six months of his life,” Freedman said.

Feldman’s fraud unraveled in July 2008 when Langier called the DeWitt Police Department to report that her husband was dying in the Philippines while waiting for a liver transplant. She told DeWitt police that she’d wired the $70,000 to a DeWitt bank for the surgery.

State health administrators have suspended the license of a Miami psychiatrist who treated a disabled preteen boy who died of overmedication.

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER

May 13, 2010

Denis Maltez, left, poses for a picture in the park

Pastor Donaldson-Host of the Lake Wales Candlelight Vigil

Welcomed several ministers, social workers and parishoners to their memorial for Gabriel Myers.

Pastor Donaldson

Mayor of Lake Wales reading the Proclamation for Gabriel Myers Day

Mayor of Lake Wales

Pastor Goosby spoke to the attendees about love and care for their children and families.

Pastor Goosby

Denis Martez and mother, Martha Quesada

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office attributed the death to a life-threatening side effect of over-medication. In his deposition, Maltez’s psychiatrist Dr. Steven Kaplan said he is not responsible for Denis’ death. “I don’t believe he died of anything that I did,” he said.

Miami Herald

Controversial Miami psychiatrist dropped from Medicaid program State health administrators have terminated a controversial Miami psychiatrist from the state’s insurance program for disabled and needy children.

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

State healthcare regulators have booted from the state Medicaid program a Miami psychiatrist who had prescribed a cocktail of potent mental health drugs to an autistic, 12-year-old boy who later died of complications from over-medication.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which oversees the state Medicaid program for the needy and disabled, has notified Dr. Steven L. Kaplan that he has been terminated from the insurance program effective May 17, said Tiffany Vause, an agency spokeswoman in Tallahassee.

Vause said Kaplan, like all Medicaid providers, had signed a “voluntary contract” with the state. “The agency elected to terminate the agreement as it was believed to be in the interest of the program to do so.”

“We will be working to ensure a smooth transition of care for his patients,” Vause added.

Kaplan declined to speak with a Miami Herald reporter Tuesday.

Kaplan, who treats about 800 patients — most of them disabled or impoverished children — was the subject of a report in The Miami Herald on Monday. The story said administrators at three state agencies had expressed concerns about Kaplan’s prescribing of psychiatric drugs to disabled children before and after the May 23, 2007, death of 12-year-old Denis Maltez.

Denis, who weighed 70 pounds, had been on three different mental health drugs, two of them in the maximum dose, at the time he died, a consultant for the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities wrote.

“In combination, all three of these agents have additive effects as a central nervous system depressant,” the consultant, psychiatrist Jorge J. Villalba, wrote. The drugs, he added, “may have been contributing factors in the client’s death.”

CAUSE OF DEATH

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office attributed the boy’s death to serotonin syndrome, also called serotonin toxicity, which can occur when an excess of medications causes the body to produce too much serotonin, a chemical that helps brain and nerve cells to function.

Over the past few years, the University of South Florida, acting on behalf of the state healthcare agency, sent Kaplan several letters suggesting he reconsider his prescribing practices.

“He said he had been practicing long enough to know how to treat his patients and was tired of being told what to do,” a pharmacist working for USF wrote following a visit to Kaplan’s office in May 2009.

Most affected by Kaplan’s termination will be clients of Florida’s Agency for Persons with Disabilities, many of whom have been treated by him.

Melanie Etters, an APD Tallahassee spokeswoman, said the healthcare agency will notify Kaplan’s patients that he will no longer be able to receive Medicaid payments.

“APD will also let [disability caseworkers], residential providers, and Family Care Council members know about Dr. Kaplan’s termination as a Medicaid provider. We will also let them know of other psychiatrists serving the Miami area,” Etters wrote in an e-mail to The Miami Herald.

`SUPPORTIVE’

“APD is supportive of this reasonable and responsible action by our sister agency to protect the health and safety of the people we serve,” Etters added.

Martha Quesada, Denis’ mother, declined to speak with a Miami Herald reporter Tuesday. Her lawsuit against the psychiatrist is pending in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

“Unfortunately, Florida has no procedure to protect the patients of physicians who write behavioral healthcare prescriptions that exceed thresholds and who blatantly ignore the `red flag’ letters from the University of South Florida Medicaid Drug Therapy Program,” said Quesada’s attorney, Howard Talendfeld.

“Nor does the state tell the parents or guardians of mentally disabled persons or foster children that these drugs prescriptions may be dangerous or monitor whether or not the physicians obtained informed consent from them.”

 Sign the pledge to stop psychiatric harm and abuse of children: http://www.cchrflorida.org/pledge/