Why America is going to go bankrupt:

[snoscythe]

The letter of the law takes over common sense. How much money do you think the IRS spent trying to run down these four cents? And this after they sent the guy a letter a few months ago assuring him that there was no delinquency.

Absurd.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/13/260401 ... -wash.html

[BroncoBot]

You've got it all wrong Sno. How can they be going broke? They just turned .04 into 235 dollars!!! The real problem is that America is broke so the government will now turn around and nickle and dime companies like the one in the article you posted to make up some ground.

It's not just the IRS. Not too long ago I heard a lawyer talking about the methods that medicaid is using similar to this one. Basically if they are able to find errors in charting (e.g. they'll pull ten charts for the audit and decide if the treatment match the symptoms, even if you've done everything perfectly those charts have to also be perfect) they (Medicaid) can turn around and extrapolate that error percent over all the medicaid patients that physician has seen. Bottom line, the physician could end up owing the company hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars back to Medicaid. Basically, the physician is now a indentured servant until he is 65 at which time he may retire, but there is no way to retire any earlier as long as he owes big bro any money. And of course, you're only going to see this stuff with smaller businesses. The government doesn't have the time or the money to waste on big corporations that can afford to put up a fight. And of course they're smart enough to not bite the hand that feeds.

Brilliant move by the government. Their return on investment for crap like this has got to be incredible! It's just too bad it's a one way street. I'd love to see an audit on the fed and see what kind of errors and manipulations they've gotten away with. I think we'd all be blown away.

[CougarClaw]

I love what Moody's is doing right now. It's giving the government a perfect A rating, but WARNS...not lowers the rating.. WARNS the rest of the world just how close to the precipice we are.

Lowering the rating would send such shockwaves, even the warning made top headlines.

I almost want us to be downgraded...force the country to stop spending more than we have.sorry. More than our grandchildren's grandchildren have.

[BoiseBYU]

America IS bankrupt, financially and morally and that happened a fairly long time ago....God help us all

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[Mithrandir]

Brilliant move by the government. Their return on investment for crap like this has got to be incredible! It's just too bad it's a one way street. I'd love to see an audit on the fed and see what kind of errors and manipulations they've gotten away with. I think we'd all be blown away.

Brilliant, except that one of these days their bullyragging is going to make the wrong person(s) pissed off, or wose...desperate. Some dude in a black suit comes into my business telling me I owe them $235 because they failed to inform me that I hadn't paid them 4 cents, they will meet my friend Mr. Remington 1100 tactical and the Sh!* will be on!

They can't continue to ruin people's lives (your story about the IRS railroading doctor's makes my blood boil) without making powerful, well connected enemies. Something BIG is coming down the pike...they can't keep doing this without major backlash/retaliation. I sense something brewing. This will not stand in America.

[Mithrandir]

America IS bankrupt, financially and morally and that happened a fairly long time ago....God help us all

God helps those who help themselves. If we do nothing, we are nearly as complicit in this as the scoundrels doing it. The time for talk has ended...the time for action is upon us. Failure to do so at this particular juncture in history will have both immediate temoral and eternal consequences. We have both a right, and a sacred obligation to throw off government when it becomes tyranous. If we do not act fairly soon, we will not be able to act.

[CougarClaw]

I can give you $7.5 Trillion reasons why we'll go bankrupt and it doesn't involve a measly four cents.

[Cougarfan87]

I was curious, so I did a little financial analysis a little while back. Now I can't really comprehend all the 000000's that come in billions and trillions, so I equated it to a more modest number. Our financial situation is similar to a person who earns $40,000 a year (tax revenue) spends $80,000 a year (current deficit) and is $200,000 in credit card debt (National debt). I say credit card debt because I don't believe the national debt has any assets backing it up. This just cannot continue for long without the economy eventually collapsing. But then again, we are supposed to have a year supply of food, and stay out of debt are we not? If we do those two things, I think things will be OK for us and our families, despite what happens to the rest of the world. However, to try and help out the rest of the world, we probably need to vote some honest to goodness fiscal conservatives that will spend no more than we earn every year.

[CougarClaw]

we probably need to vote some honest to goodness fiscal conservatives that will spend no more than we earn every year.

I hear the Dodo bird is running for election in 2012.Oh, sorry, I get my extinct species confused at times.

[Cougy_Monster]

It's not just the IRS. Not too long ago I heard a lawyer talking about the methods that medicaid is using similar to this one. Basically if they are able to find errors in charting (e.g. they'll pull ten charts for the audit and decide if the treatment match the symptoms, even if you've done everything perfectly those charts have to also be perfect) they (Medicaid) can turn around and extrapolate that error percent over all the medicaid patients that physician has seen. Bottom line, the physician could end up owing the company hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars back to Medicaid. Basically, the physician is now a indentured servant until he is 65 at which time he may retire, but there is no way to retire any earlier as long as he owes big bro any money.

You left out a couple important points about these medicaid / medicare "bounty hunters" hired by the feds.

- The bounty hunters get paid commission based on the # of "errors" they find, so there is enormous incentive to categorize normal, good health care as fraudulent or erroneous.

- If the Docs take the bounty hunters to court and win (spending usually 6 figures in the process), there is absolutely ZERO accountability for the hunters. They are granted immunity by the federal government from legal recourse. So, in all reality they can submit an infinite number of false claims they simply pull out of their arse and when proven wrong they just walk to the clinic next door and start over. The Docs are left with the legal fees.

- When you go to the doctor, if you don't think this is impacting your care you have no idea how things work behind the scenes. Unfortunately when seeing a patient I'm forced to treat them as a malpractice or audit case from the very beginning instead of a person. Their medical record looks like a deposition instead of documentation of their medical needs. I try to treat them like I would my own family member, but malpractice attorneys and the federal government won't let me. It's such a waste.

- When I see a new patient one of the first questions I ask them is if they have / had any litigation against ANYONE.....employer, other doc, family member, insurance company. If the answer is yes I tell them I don't think I can make them any better. There is good data to support that position too. The two biggest predictors of chronic pain following an injury are #1 job dissatisfaction and #2 pending litigation. If that doesn't make you sick you probably suffer from #1 or #2.