U.S. to ban some Medicare providers
MIAMI – For the first time in history, federal health officials said Friday they will ban certain types of Medicare and Medicaid providers in three high-fraud cities from enrolling in the taxpayer funded programs for the poor as part of an effort to prevent scams.
The strict moratoriums, which start Tuesday, give federal health officials unprecedented power to choose any region and industry with high fraud activity and ban new Medicare and Medicaid providers from joining the programs for six months.
The administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the agency is targeting providers of home health care in the Miami and Chicago areas. All ambulance providers would be banned in the Houston area.
The moratorium, which was first reported by The Associated Press, will also extend to Children’s Health Insurance Program providers in the same areas, agency administrator Marilyn Tavenner said.
Castro pleads guilty in Ohio kidnap case
CLEVELAND – A man accused of imprisoning three women in his home and subjecting them to rapes and beatings for a decade avoided the death penalty Friday, pleading guilty in a deal that will keep him in prison for life.
“The captor is now the captive,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty said of 53-year-old Ariel Castro.
The women’s escape from Castro’s home two months ago at first brought joy to the city where they had become household names after years of searches, publicity and vigils, then despair at revelations of their treatment.
Their rescue brought shocking allegations that Castro fathered a child with one of the women, induced five miscarriages in another by starving and punching her, and assaulted one with a vacuum cord around her neck when she tried to escape.
He pleaded guilty to 937 counts in the deal, which sends him to prison for life without parole, plus 1,000 years. Prosecutors agreed to take a possible death penalty charge off the table.
Hacker who made ATMs spit out cash is dead
SAN FRANCISCO – A prominent hacker who discovered a way to have ATM machines spit out cash and was set to deliver a talk about hacking pacemakers and other wireless implantable medical devices died in San Francisco, authorities and his employer said.
Barnaby Jack died on Thursday, although the cause of death is still under investigation, San Francisco Deputy Coroner Kris Barbrich said. Craig Brophy, a spokesman for computer security firm IOActive, Inc., where Jack worked, confirmed his death and said the company would be issuing a statement.
Jack, who was in his mid-30s, was scheduled to speak on Thursday at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. The headline of his talk was, “Implantable Medical Devices: Hacking Humans,” according to a synopsis on the Black Hat conference website.
Jack planned to reveal software that uses a common transmitter to scan for and “interrogate” individual medical implants, the website said.
He made headlines at the conference in 2010 when he demonstrated his ability to hack stand-alone ATMs.
San Diego mayor says he will get therapy
SAN DIEGO – San Diego Mayor Bob Filner said Friday he will undergo therapy after less than a year in office amid allegations that he sexually harassed women.
Filner announced his plans after a series of women claimed he kissed, groped and placed them in headlocks.
Filner apologized to voters, his staff and the women he allegedly harassed, but added: “Words alone are not enough. I am responsible for my conduct. And I must take responsibly for my conduct.”
The allegations resulted in widespread calls for him to resign, plunging the nation’s eighth-largest city into political turmoil.
When the allegations surfaced, Filner apologized and said he needed help. But soon after, he said he was innocent of sexual harassment and resisted calls to leave office.
Associated Press
