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Raging Pencils by Mike "Astroboy" Stanfill

Darwin was right.


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Mike Stanfill, Private Hand
Mike Stanfill, Private Hand
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Today's mystery web comic is:
TOM THE DANCING BUG


start rant

Can We Trust The Health Care Companies?
SUUUUUUUURE We Can.

insurance fraudThe following is a list of the 20 largest cases of health care fraud, and their associated fines, in the U.S. These are just snaphots. You can get full details here.

(1) Tenet Healthcare - 2006 - $900,000,000 for billing violations.

(2) HCA - 2000 - $731,400,000 - Unlawful billing practices.

(3) HCA - 2003 - $631,000,000 - False claims.(Eventually, $1.7 billion.)

(4) Serono - 2005 - $567,000,000 - Fraud. Plus $137 million more for a related fine.

(5) Taketa-Abbott Pharmaceutical - 2001 - $560,000,000. Fraudulent drug pricing.

(6) Abbott Labs - 2003 - $400,000,000 - Defrauding Medicare and Medicaid.

(7) Fresnius Medical Care - 2000 - $385,000,000 - Fraud.

(8) SmithCline Beecham - 1997 - $325,000,000 - Filing false claims.

(9) HealthSouth - 2004 - $320,000,000 - Defrauding Medicare.

(10) Gambro Healthcare - 20004 - $310,000,000 - Falls statements, kickbacks.

(11) Schering-Plough - 2004 - $292,000,000 - Drug pricing fraud.

(12) AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals - 2003 - $266,000,000 - Health care fraud.

(13) St. Barnabas Hospitals - 2006 - $265,000,000 - "Outlier" fraud.

(14) Bayer Corporation - 2003 - $258,000,000 - Violation of the False Claims Act.

(15) Schering-Plough - 2006 - $255,000,000 - Flase Claims Act.

(16) First american Health Care of Georgia - 1996 - Medicare fraud.

(17) BankAmerica - 1998 - $188,000,000 - Flase Claims Act.

(18) Laboratory corporation of America - 1996 - $182,000,000 - False test claims.

(19) Beverly Enterprises - 2000 - $170,000,000 - Medicare fraud.

(20) Medco Health Solutions - 2006 - $163,000,000 (Tentative) - Medicare fraud.

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IMPORTANT: Health insurance companies are paying bands of hooligans to attend town hall events on health care around the country, specifically to disrupt the process. You can fight back by attending these forums yourself. For a comprehensive list of when and where go here and wait for the list to load on the right hand side. See you there!


end rant


Bonus Desserts
Ben & Jerry and Cookies for Peace


Extra Deluxe Refreshing Bonus Fabulousness

drinking the kool-aid
OH YEAH!


Raging Pencils salutes the Mystery Reader of
Larnaca, Cyprus
Whoever you are, thanks for reading my crappy little 'toon.



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Alien planet. The stars in the night sky spell out "Darwin was right".
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