NEWS BRIEFS
DUKE HEALTH TO
PAY $1M PENALTY
FOR OVERCHARGING
GOVERNMENT
DURHAM, N.C. — Duke University
Health System has agreed to pay $1
million to settle allegations that it
overcharged government insurance
programs, state and federal authorities
said on March 21st. Leslie Johnson,
a former employee of a Duke Healthowned firm that handles billing and
collection services for the hospital
system, filed a whistleblower lawsuit
under the False Claims Act, which
attracted the attention of the U.S.
Attorney’s Office and the North Carolina
Attorney General’s Office.
“Health care fraud like this wastes
tax dollars, harms patients who need
care and drives up medical costs for
all of us,” Attorney General Roy Cooper
said in a statement. “We’re working
closely with federal officials to root out
this kind of fraud in North Carolina and
make wrongdoers pay.”
Duke Health allegedly overcharged
the Medicare, Medicaid and TriCare
insurance programs by billing the
government for services provided by
physician assistants during coronary
artery bypass surgeries when they
were acting as surgical assistants and
by unbundling claims in connection
with cardiac and anesthesia services
to increase costs, authorities said.
Authorities didn’t specify when the alleged
overbilling occurred or which of Duke’s
three area hospitals – Duke University
Hospital and Duke Regional Hospital in
Durham and Duke Raleigh Hospital in
Raleigh – was involved.
“Allegations of health care fraud
will be zealously pursued in North
Carolina,” U.S. Attorney Thomas Walker
said in a statement. “Duke University
Health System was forthcoming with
information and was cooperative in the
investigation and resolution.”
24
MEMORIAL HONORS THE 150 BLACK
WOMEN WHO WERE LYNCHED
PHILADELPHIA, PA
(www. naturallymoi.
com) - A memorial
was held to honor the
150 Black women
who were lynched
in America during
the 19th and 20th
centuries. The event,
“In Remembrance of
Our Sisters: 150 Black
Women Who Were
Lynched in the U.S.
Between 1870-1957,”
was held on March 30th
in Philadelphia, PA.
The event organizers
requested that everyone
in attendance wear
white, and encouraged
attendees to bring their
children to “witness the
healing and learn the forgotten history.”
According to the website www.
henriettavintondavis.com, it is estimated that
over 5,000 people were lynched in the United
States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
There were over 150 documented lynchings of
Black women in the United States between 1850
and 1957. These women, many of them young
girls, were raped and tortured before they were
hung. Some of them were burned alive and had
their babies cut from their stomachs as they
were murdered. The
babies, who were also
alive, were then stomped
to death by the white
men who murdered
their mothers
Once these
women were hung,
White men and women
would stop by to observe
the “exhibition.” They
often made it a family
event, bringing their
children along to look
at the dead bodies
as they swayed in the
wind on Southern and
Midwestern trees. They
would even take pictures
of the hanging bodies
and put them on post
cards and mail messages
to their friends.
Further, lynchings were often advertised
in newspapers. The body parts of some of
the victims, including their genιtalia, were
distributed and put on public display.
The event organizer Iya Marilyn Kai Jewett
states that she hopes this event will serve as a
history lesson to today’s youths - that they must
never forget that these atrocities happened in
America’s history.
(source: www.yourblackworld.com)
SPECTACULAR MAGAZINE | April 2014 | www.spectacularmag.com
LOUISIANA PARISH BANS
SAGGY PANTS
JENNING, LA (AP) — The Jefferson Davis
Parish Police Jury, the governing authority
of the Parish (or county) that possess both
administrative and legislative powers, has
unanimously passed an ordinance making it
illegal for any person to appear in a public
place wearing pants below the waist and
exposing the skin or undergarments.
Police Juror Steve Eastman initially
asked the panel to consider banning saggy
pants at the parish courthouse in January
in response to courthouse employees’
complaints about having to see people’s
underwear and body parts. Another Juror
took the suggestion a step further and asked
the panel to consider making it illegal for
anyone to show their undergarments in
public to limit indecent and lewd behavior.
Jurors approved the ordinance in late
March. Those violating the law f X