Dr. Judith Robinson
Dr. Judith Robinson says Indiana's largest health network defrauded Indiana taxpayers to the tune of at least $100 million dollars. The claim is that
IU Methodist clinics,
HealthNet Clinics and
MDWise all profited while providing less-than-adequate care for poor mothers—specifically ones with high-risk pregnancies. The U.S. government, with the help of Dr. Robinson,
are suing:
The suit, filed by a doctor who served as director of women's services at HealthNet as well as medical director of ob-gyn services at IU Health Methodist Hospital, says that HealthNet and IU Health shunted Medicaid high-risk patients to less-expensive nurse midwives. Then, the suit says, the providers submitted bills as though doctors had treated the women.
Dr. Robinson says that in not providing doctors to these high-risk patients, these healthcare providers contributed to at least one mother's death and brain damage in children.
Nancy Koger's two-year-old daughter Denise was born with brain damage:
According to medical records obtained by America Tonight, Koger was admitted to the hospital when she was 41 weeks pregnant. But according to Robinson, a nurse discharged Koger after approximately 30 hours of trying to induce her labor, even though her baby’s heart monitoring strip showed abnormal vital signs. Robinson said that Koger should never have been sent home.
“I didn’t see any doctors,” said Koger, who said she was in extreme pain when she was sent home. “I couldn’t even make it to the restroom. I literally had to crawl on the wall to get to the bathroom, which was in the very next room.”
Three days later, she returned to the hospital for an emergency C-section. But she believes the damage to Denise had already been done.
That is unacceptable. Criminal negligence at best. But the lawsuit alleges some far more
nefarious than incompetent. HealthNet Chief Medical Officer Donald Trainor's email correspondence with Dr. Robinson are a part of the lawsuit and they are damning:
In a February 2011 email included in the suit, Trainor explained the reasons why HealthNet employed more nurse midwives than obstetrician-gynecologists.
"The first is largely financial," the suit quotes the email as saying. The email went on to say that midwives are paid one-third to one-half as much as obstetrician-gynecologists but that HealthNet is "paid the same amount by Medicaid (our primary payor) regardless of who provides the care."
The suit says that in 2010, midwives were paid $108,632 on average while obstetrician-gynecologists received an average salary of $349,976.
So, it's not cutting costs to run a facility. It's cutting costs to up their profit margin. A hundred million dollars is not enough to repair the damage done. Tana Tyler was 26 and pregnant with her first child. In the 37th week, a nurse midwife determined that Ms. Tyler had pre-eclampsia—complications brought about by high blood pressure and protein in the urine. They decided to induce labor:
Nurse midwives cared for her throughout the day, giving her dinner. Mills, who was with her, recalled that her daughter later went to the bathroom, felt ill, and when she returned there was no fetal heartbeat.
She was rushed into an emergency C-section and "because of the pizza in her stomach, she aspirated while under anesthesia and died," the suit says. Tyler died and her son, Chace, now 9 months old, suffered permanent neurological damage.
Mills is left caring for her two grandchildren and missing her daughter, who was studying to become a psychologist.
"These babies, their lives have changed forever. My heart breaks for them," said Mills who has formed the L.A.C.E. Foundation to provide support to children whose mothers die in childbirth. "I think only physicians should see high-risk pregnancies. ... All she came in to do was to have a baby. I want them to be more aware of what's going on and give these patients the proper care they deserve."
Heartbreaking. If the charges being filed are true, there are people that must be punished with more than just financial penalties.
You can watch Dr. Robinson's local television interview concerning the story below the fold.