Psychiatry, It's A Killing.: October 2015

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Ted Cruz: How About A Debate Moderated By Sean Hannity, Mark Levine, and Rush Limbaugh?

HT to WZ

Wouldn't that be delicious?

After that ridiculous, partisan drive by CNBC pulled.

Shell Shocked CNBC Staffers Had Long Flight Home

DOE Issues New Rule: Don't Put Highly Enriched Uranium In Your Pocket

We need to raise your taxes. How else can we continue to provide you with only the Best in Services and Top Flight professionals you've learned to expect from Government?

How does one repost this without using the word moron?

CNSNews

By Melanie Hunter | October 30, 2015 | 10:15 AM EDT

(CNSNews.com) – Following an investigation by its inspector general, the Department of Energy has issued a new rule advising its workers to refrain from putting highly enriched uranium in their pockets.

“After interviewing chemical operators and reviewing revised Y-12 procedures, we confirmed that chemical operators are no longer allowed to place samples in their pockets and must check their pockets before removing their coveralls,” said a report issued by the DOE Office of Inspector General.

The report, released in September, described a safety violation that occured last year at the DOE’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

"We received allegations that special nuclear material (SNM) was not appropriately managed at the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12)," said the IG report. "Specifically, we were informed that on January 22, 2014, highly enriched uranium (HEU) samples were discovered in the pocket of coveralls located on a laundry truck that annunicated an alarm as the truck tried to exit Y-12s Protected Area."

The DOE's Y-12 National Security Complex is involved in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, according to the department's Y-12 website.

"Y-12's core mission is to ensure a safe, secure, and reliable U.S. nuclear deterrent, which is essential to national security," says the site.

“Every weapon in the U.S. nuclear stockpile has components manufactured, maintained or ultimately dismantled by Y-12, the nation’s Uranium Center of Excellence,” the website stated. “We employ only the most advanced and failsafe technologies to protect the stockpile.”

According to the report, when there is a safety violation inside the facility, workers who discover the violation should “establish at least a 15-foot boundary around the samples, make no attempt to correct the situation, and notify Nuclear Criticality Safety (NCS) about the discovery.”

This is known as Y-12 procedure Y56-001, Abnormal Condition Involving Fissile Material.

This “mitigates the risk of adverse health effects such as radiation sickness, increased risk of cancer, and possible death,” according to the report.

“NCS determined that the requirements of the procedure to establish a safe stand-off distance were not met,” the report stated.

“We determined the requirements were not met, in part, because it was unclear as to whether Y56-001 procedures applied outside of the production facilities, as in this case. Also, we were told that training on this procedure did not specify that the procedure should be used outside of the production facilities,” the report added.

The inspector general’s review of the incident “revealed that Y-12 had not completed corrective actions concerning: 1) a safety violation that occurred during the discovery of the HEU samples, and 2) the untimely notification to the Plant Shift Superintendent Office (PSS) about the discovery of the HEU samples.”

After the inspector general’s office notified Y-12 officials, they agreed to implement corrective actions for both issues, according to the report.

Also, the report noted that PSS officials were not notified of the incident until about eight hours afterwards, whereas PSS officials are supposed to be notified immediately about such safety violations, according to Y19-115, Reporting and Handling Security Concerns and Events.

According to one employee at the facility, they assumed that PSS was already aware of the incident, but could not remember who notified PSS or when PSS was notified. “This confusion led to the delayed PSS notification,” the report stated.

Officials at the Y-12 facility have taken steps to improve the tracking and handling of highly enriched uranium and other special nuclear material, the report noted.

“Although Y-12 already had a bar code tracking system in place prior to the incident, SNM samples were exempt from bar code tracking because SNM samples were considered Category IV nuclear material due to their low weight,” the report stated.

According to a Y-12 Subject Matter Expert (SME), the possibility of “a nuclear criticality accident occurring during the incident was very low,” because the “minimum critical mass” for such an incident is over 700 grams, while the samples in question only contained 20 grams of uranium. Also, personnel wore proper protective equipment.

CNSNews.com contacted the Department of Energy with questions about the report, but the DOE has not responded.

Thank You Ms Hunter and CNS.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Sanctuary Cities: SF Murderer Of Kate Steinle Had Been Deported 5 Times

weaselzippers

Via FullMeasure.com:

This week, the Senate blocked a bill aimed at cracking down on America’s nearly 300 sanctuary cities. Laws in these cities help shield illegal immigrants from deportation, even after they’ve committed felonies.

The proposal was motivated by the death of Kate Steinle. In July, she was fatally shot by an illegal immigrant who’d been deported five times and convicted of seven felonies. The Full Measure team found the problem of Importing Murder is much larger, and often understated by politicians and advocates with special interests at stake.

Keep reading…

Thank You Nick and Full Measure.com

These border jumping criminals wouldn't be here if they weren't providing profit/equity to the people who Want and Keep them here.

We can repost ad infinitum about the utter inability of Psychiatry to cure anyone but themselves and their co-workers, their wretched, 100% worse than useless drugs and so on, or you can search it out yourselves through the post labels and side bar permalinks.

Kate Steinle would probably still be alive if SF and UCSF didn't need a steady stream of disposable 'Research' subjects.

Ted Cruz Gives CNBC Debate Moderators A Magnificent Take Down: "Why Don't You Ask About SUBSTANTIVE Issues?"

HT to WZ here.

The Dem Debate was between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.

$8 Million Awarded To Family Of Man Who Died In Risperdal Trial

madinamerica

In The News October 22, 2015

A California jury ruled that Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical and a psychiatrist are responsible for the death of 25-year-old Leo Liu. During a clinical trial for Risperdal, Liu died of a heart injury that was “further complicated” by the drug and ignored by the study doctors. Janssen was found 70% responsible for Liu’s death and ordered to pay $5.6 million to the family.

When Liu was first recommended for the Risperdal trial a pre-screening exam yielded abnormal electrocardiogram (EKG) readings and irregular blood tests, which indicated possible heart disease, according to a Fox 11 report.

Despite these results, Liu was cleared for the study and he began the Risperdal trial in February of 2009. Just days after starting the study his condition worsened. He died 5 days after his first Risperdal injection.

According to Law360, Doctors testified at the trial that Liu would have had a 50% better chance of surviving if the researchers would have transferred him to an acute-care facility when they first realized that his condition was worsening.

The family alleges that Liu’s psychiatrist convinced him to sign a consent form and enter the study and later received a “finder's fee” of $30 thousand dollars from the drug company for his enrollment. The psychiatrist was found 30% responsible and ordered to pay the remainder of the settlement.

--Justin Karter, News Editor

Confusion Over Antipsychotic Dosing Data in RAISE StudyOctober 21, 2015

Landmark Schizophrenia Study Recommends More TherapyOctober 20, 2015

Meta-Analysis Ties Gray Matter Loss to Antipsychotic DoseSeptember 9, 2015

Antipsychotics Prescribed Off-Label for Challenging BehaviorsSeptember 8, 2015

Thank You Mr Karter and MIA.

Now, how long you think it will take J&J's Lawyers to shop the Judge whose right for them and get it reversed?

J&J Guilty Says Arkansas Jury In $1.25 Billion Marketing Case

UPDATES:
March 20, 2014
Arkansas Supreme Court Reverses Billion Dollar Risperdal Case

June 1st, 2015
Janssen To Pay $7.5 Million In Risperdal Settlement

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

ObamaCare Increases Deficit By $1.35 Trillion/9th ObamaCare Co-Op Implodes/ Rate Shock Now Includes 'Cheap' Plans

nachumlist

Obamacare

ObamaCare´s Rate Shock Now Includes Its ´Cheap´ Plans

CBO: ObamaCare Increases Deficit by $1.35 Trillion

Another One Bites the Dust: Ninth Obamacare Co-Op Implodes

Thank You nachumlist

Dumb: Obama to Call For More Gun Control Laws, Dumber: In Chicago

The left's war against guns is not protecting you. It's instituting control over you while ignoring their own laws when one of their own gets caught.
weaselzippers

Alternate headline: Obama to call for gun control in city that proves it doesn’t work.

Via Chicago Tribune:

President Barack Obama returns Tuesday to his hometown, a city that has become a national symbol of gun violence, to speak with police leaders from around the country about the need for tougher firearm laws.

In his speech at the annual conference for the International Association of Chiefs of Police at McCormick Place, Obama is expected to push for national laws that make it harder to get around local restrictions by simply driving across a state border with less stringent gun laws.

Weaker guns laws in Indiana, for instance, have long been a problem for Chicago police, leading to a steady stream of illegal guns crossing the border and ending up on the city’s West and South sides. A recent report issued by the city said 60 percent of the illegal guns recovered by Chicago police from 2009 to 2013 came from out of state, many from Indiana.

Obama’s visit comes at a time when Chicago continues to struggle with gun violence. Even on the most recent late October weekend, shootings left 28 people wounded and six killed.

For the year so far, homicides are nearing 400, well ahead of the pace at this point in 2014 and 2013. Through 6 a.m. Monday, homicides had risen 18.5 percent to 391, up from 330 during the year-earlier period, said Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

Over that same period, a little more than 2,500 people have been shot, about 400 more than the same period in 2014, according to a Tribune analysis.

Thank You Zip and Chicago Trib.

We need more gun control for you which we IGNORE when our own get caught breaking the gun laws we already have.

When Obama's own Attorney General runs guns to Mexican Drug Cartel Lords.

Operation Fast And Furious: What Happened?

When Ca. State Senator Leland Yee Gets Caught Soliciting $ Millions From Undercover FBI Agents To Supply Them With Guns To Give Terrorists

Form Ca. State Senator Leland Yee Pleads Guilty In Corruption Case: Gun Running Charges DROPPED

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Citing Fraud Concerns Texas Officials Subpoena Planned Parenthood Records

Gotta love it. Feel Good story of the day? Week? Month?

fiercehealthpayerantifraud

Days after announcing plans to revoke Medicaid funding, state officials home in on illegal billing practices

October 23, 2015 | By Evan Sweeney

After spending the last several months embroiled in national controversy, Planned Parenthood is facing Medicaid fraud allegations that has resulted in an investigation by Texas state officials, according to The Houston Chronicle.

In a letter dated October 19, Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) Inspector General, Stuart Bowen, informed Planned Parenthood of the agency's strategy to terminate the provider from the Medicaid program for "serious Medicaid program violations" including fraud. The letter did not cite specific instances, but highlighted a 2013 fraud case that Planned Parenthood settled for $4.3 million.

On Thursday, Texas HHSC officials served subpoenas to more than a dozen Planned Parenthood providers, asking them to hand over thousands of patient and employee records. A letter obtained by The Chronicle indicated the state was "conducting an inspection related to certain claims paid by the Medicaid program." State officials would not comment on the investigation, but Gov. Greg Abbot indicated that the state had more evidence of Medicaid fraud beyond the allegations raised in the 2013 lawsuit. Planned Parenthood representatives said the scope of the subpoenas was "unprecedented" and referred to the investigation as "political grandstanding."

Appointed in the wake of a $110 million no-bid contract scandal, Bowen has taken significant measures to reduce the backlog of fraud cases, while touting a new law that restructures the definition of fraud and prevents the commission from misusing it's authority to freeze Medicaid payments.

Other states, like Alabama and Louisiana, have also pushed to block Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, a move that may run afoul of federal law.

For more:
- read the Houston Chronicle article
- here's the letter from the Texas HHSC Office of Inspector General

See what happens when you vote an adult (Greg Abbot) in?

With Gov Abbot at the helm, we're guessing something's going to hit the fan for this teacher, too:

http://www.allenbwest.com/2015/10/7th-grader-explains-what-her-teacher-would-do-if-she-didnt-deny-the-existence-of-god/

VA Scandal: Excess Wait Times Persist At Phoenix Facility

fiercehealthcare

Provided Vets who we Owe, can even get in.

Clinton calls problems 'systemic' but opposes privatization

October 27, 2015 | By Zack Budryk

Care delays persist within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) more than a year after a scandal erupted over wait times at the department's Phoenix facility,according to an investigation by CNN.

Veterans at the Phoenix VA, the center of the nationwide scandal, continue to wait as long as six months for care, according to CNN. More than 8,000 requests for care carried wait times of more than 90 days in August, according to documents obtained by the news outlet, and official measures prevent these figures from appearing in public data. VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson told CNN there are nearly 500,000 appointments within the system with extended wait times, even more than the number a year ago.

"How can it be?" he said. "The lesson that we've seen in location after location is when we improve access to care, whether it's by adding staff or space or productivity or care in the community, more veterans come to VA for more care."

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's campaign clarified that the presidential candidate and former secretary of state is "outraged" by continual care delays within the VA after she said last week that Republicans had politicized the scandal and made it seem more "widespread" than it really was, the New York Times reports.

Clinton made the initial statement in a Friday interview on MSNBC, drawing criticism from Republicans. Yesterday the campaign clarified that she recognized reforms are needed within the VA to address the "systemic" problems, but expressed her opposition to privatizing the department as some have suggested.

Meaningful reform may require a "SWAT team," Clinton said, according to Forbes, but she expressed a belief that the VA needs more time to see if current reforms take effect. "Unfortunately, some [VA hospitals] are doing a lot better job than others are," Clinton said in the article. "And I think that the current new leadership that President Obama did put in seems to be trying to tackle a lot of it."

To learn more:
- read the CNN article
- here's the Times article
- read the Forbes piece

Thank You Mr Budyrk and Fierce Healthcare.

As for Madame Clinton's campaign triangulating:

Of course she doesn't want them privatized.

Look at how well ObamaCare's working out.

Gotta keep those Govt. employees, pro Dem voters fat, well fed, and sassy.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Doctors Agree! Obama's Electronic Medical Records Mandate Sucks

Townhall

Michelle Malkin | Oct 23, 2015Hey, who's up for a stiff dose of "See, I told you so?"

For the past several years, medical professionals have warned that the federal electronic medical records mandate -- buried in the trillion-dollar Obama stimulus of 2009 -- would do more harm than good. Their diagnosis, unfortunately, is on the nose.

The Quack-in-Chief peddled his tech-centric elixir as a cost-saving miracle. "This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests," he crowed at the time. In theory, of course, modernizing record-collection is a good idea, which many private health care providers had already adopted before the Healer of All Things took office.

But in the clumsy, power-grabbing hands of Washington bureaucrats, Obama's one-size-fits-all EMR regulations have morphed into what one expert called "healthcare information technology's version of cash-for-clunkers."

I reported in 2012 how my own primary care physician quit her regular practice and converted to "concierge care" because of the meddlesome EMR burden. Untold numbers of docs across the country have done the same.

In 2013, health care analysts at the RAND Corporation admitted that their cost-savings predictions of $81 billion a year were vastly inflated.

In 2014, RAND researchers interviewed doctors who spotlighted "important negative effects" of the EMR mandate on "their professional lives and, in some troubling ways, on patient care. They described poor EHR usability that did not match clinical workflows, time-consuming data entry, interference with face-to-face patient care, and overwhelming numbers of electronic messages and alerts."

And the hits keep coming.

Robert Wachter, author of the recently published "The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age," chronicled the damage he's witnessed: "Physicians retiring early. Small practices bankrupted by up-front expenses or locked into ineffective systems by the prohibitive cost of switching. Hours consumed by onerous data entry unrelated to patient care. Workflow disruptions. And above all, massive intrusions on our patient relationships."

The American Medical Association, which foolishly backed Obamacare, is now balking at top-down government intrusion into their profession. Better late than never. The group launched a campaign called "Break the Red Tape" this summer to pressure D.C. to pause the new medical-record rules as an estimated 250,000 physicians face fines totaling $200 million a year for failing to comply with "meaningful use" EMR requirements.

In Massachusetts last month, physicians decried the failure to achieve true "interoperability" between EMR systems despite a $30 billion federal investment through the Obama stimulus. Dr. Dennis Dimitri, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, noted at a rancor-filled town hall that the mandate has "added significant time to the daily life of most physicians in their practices," WBUR reported. "It has not necessarily lived up to expectations in terms of its ability to provide cues to physicians to make sure that necessary treatments are not being missed. It has certainly not been able to swiftly disseminate information from one clinical setting to another."

That's in no small part due to the cronyism embedded in the federal stimulus "incentives" -- a massive chunk of which the White House doled out to behemoth EMR company Epic Systems, headed by Obama crony Judith Faulkner. As I've noted repeatedly in this column the past three years, Epic continues to be plagued by both industry and provider complaints about its creaky, closed-end system and exorbitant fee structure to enable the very kind of interoperability the Obama EMR mandate was supposed to ensure.

Now, even left-wing Mother Jones magazine reports this week that "instead of ushering in a new age of secure and easily accessible medical files, Epic has helped create a fragmented system that leaves doctors unable to trade information across practices or hospitals. That hurts patients who can't be assured that their records -- drug allergies, test results, X-rays -- will be available to the doctors who need to see them. This is especially important for patients with lengthy and complicated health histories."

The Obama White House has responded by doubling down on its destructive EMR rules that punish both patients and providers. Congress must intervene. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, introduced a bill Thursday to repeal the draconian penalties "so that providers can get back to the business they are uniquely trained to do -- utilizing their skills and knowledge to heal the sick and support the continued vitality of the healthy."

Prescription: Butt out, Washington. Primum non nocere.

Thank You Ms Malkin and Townhall.

HT to nachumlist.com

Watchdog: ObamaCare Exchanges Fail To Detect Counterfeit Documents

"If You Like Your Plan, You Can Keep Your Plan." Barack Obama.

ATR

Watchdog: Obamacare Exchanges Fail to Detect Counterfeit Documents

Posted by Alexander Hendrie on Friday, October 23rd, 2015, 2:06 PM PERMALINK

Obamacare exchanges are failing to verify key enrollment information, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). This new report is the latest in a long line finding that controls on federal and state Obamacare exchanges are abysmal.

As part of its review, GAO tested application and enrollment controls on the federal exchange and two state exchanges (California and Kentucky). Ten fictitious applicants were created to test whether verification steps including validating an applicant’s Social Security number, verifying citizenship, and verifying household income were completed properly.

In order to test these controls, GAO’s test applications provided fraudulent documentation:

“For each of the 10 undercover applications where we obtained qualified health-plan coverage, the respective marketplace directed that our applicants submit supplementary documentation… we provided counterfeit follow-up documentation, such as fictitious Social Security cards with impossible Social Security numbers, for all 10 undercover applications.”

As the report notes, all ten applications remained enrolled on Obamacare even though fraudulent or insufficient documentation was provided:

“For all 10 of these undercover applications, we maintained subsidized coverage beyond the period during which applicants may file supporting documentation to resolve inconsistencies.”

As a result, each applicant received the Obamacare premium tax credit and cost-sharing reduction subsidies, without being properly verified. The ten applicants received a total of $2,300 in tax credits per month.

This is not the first time that watchdog groups have found Obamacare exchanges have failed to properly verify enrollment and eligibility. At least four other reports released this year have raised alarms about existing Obamacare controls:

An August 10, 2015 report by the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS OIG) found that the federal Healthcare.gov is failing to verify applicant's Social Security numbers, citizenship, and household income in order to properly distribute tax credits.

A July 16, 2015 audit released by GAO found that 11 of 12 fictitious applicants received coverage for the entire 2014 coverage period despite many using fraudulent documents, and others providing no documentation at all. From these 11 test applicants alone, erroneously Healthcare.gov paid $30,000 in tax credits.

A June 16, 2015 report released by HHS OIG found that $2.8 billion worth of subsidies and payments had been made in 2014 without verification.

A May 11, 2015 report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the IRS was failing to verify whether individuals had even bought health insurance before distributing tax credits.

Thank You Mr Hendrie and ATR.

HT to nachumlist.com

Psychiatry, It's A Killing.