Cumberland River Comprehensive Care

Are you a student or the parent of a student who was “counseled” by an employee of Cumberland River Comprehensive Care (CRCC)?

Are you a former employee of CRCC?

CRCC (or “CompCare,” as it’s referred to by some people) is a provider of a broad range of mental health services and operates in an eight-county area in southeastern Kentucky.

Among the services they provide is “Child/Family Intervention.” This consists of a unlicensed counselor who is considered a “guest” at the school and who makes contact with certain students, supposedly because they  need mental health assistance.

While the CompCare employee manual probably describes their job in different terms, what they really do is target kids from low-income families and work up a file on them which is then used to justify putting the child under the care of CompCare, for which they can bill Medicaid (the federal health care program for lower income people).

Some people will say this is a good thing.

Some people know that it’s not because they’ve seen the harm that’s come to their kids when some counselor labels them with “ADHD” or “bipolar” and gets them started on drugs.

If you would like to report what occurred and find out what can be done about it, please e-mail me or leave a comment and I will contact you.

Regards,

Sue

One fish, two fish, red fish, you’re busted: Psychiatrist Dr. Suess indicted for Medicaid fraud

Lawrence Suess has been charged with 14 counts of medicaid fraud following an investigation of his billing practices.

Seuss owns and operates out of the Western Kentucky Center for Psychiatric Medicine.

The indictment alleges that Doctor Suess intentionally submitted false claims to Medicaid by claiming he provided individual therapy sessions that paid at higher rate than the sessions he actually performed between January of 2005 and September of 2007.

Doctor Seuss is scheduled to appear in a Hopkins County court on January 10th.  He could face up to 70 years in prision if convicted.

Source: “Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway has announced the indictment of a Hopkins County psychiatrist,” TriStateHomepage.co, December 23, 2011.

Marriage & family therapist sentenced for possession of child porn, perjury

On June 27, 2011, marriage and family therapist Thomas Henry Ceglarek was sentenced to three years and 10 months in federal prison for possession of child pornography and perjury.  He was further sentenced to 15 years supervised released and was ordered to pay a $5000 fine and register as a sex offender.

Ceglarek admitted that he possessed two computers containing images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  He also admitted that he had falsely claimed to have been unemployed in October 2010 in order to obtain a court-appointed attorney when in fact he was then earning $70,000 a year in his position as an elementary school counselor with the San Diego School District.

Ceglarek’s marriage and family therapist license with the state of California is listed as inactive as of March 31, 2011.

Source: Susan Shroder, “Former school counselor sentenced in child-porn case,” San Diego Union-Tribune, June 27, 2011.

Universal Health Services behavioral health facilities: Profits Over Patients continues

In 2009, Citizens Commission on Human Rights issued the report “Universal Health Services: Profits Over Patients,” containing information on three then-recent teen deaths in UHS facilities, as well as reports of abuses, crimes, lawsuits and investigations involving UHS facilities going back to 1991.  Until recently, the most visible UHS news was how the company had paid more than $3 billion in November 2010 to acquire the 126 psychiatric facilities owned by Psychiatric Solutions, Inc.

But in April 2011 news started to appear about violence and investigations in UHS behavioral health facilities in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia:

• On April 25, 2011, the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) placed all three of UHS’ The Pines Children’s Residential Facilities on provisional licenses for six months.  Provisional licenses are issued to health care facilities when corrective measures have been ordered.  Failure to make the necessary corrections could result in the state revoking The Pines’ licenses.  The state also froze all admissions to the facilities until such time as the facilities can provide evidence of sufficient improvement of a number of safety and treatment issues.  This action occurred after state investigators determined that The Pines filed to report and document an allegation of sexual abuse at one of its facilities.[1]

• On May 11, 2011, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Health Service Regulation issued a Statement of Deficiencies and Plan of Correction to UHS’ Old Vineyard Youth Services after state investigators found evidence of approximately 15 instances of improper sexual contact between two male residents (ages 14 and 17) of the facility and accompanying staff failure to properly monitor and detect the abuse.[2]

• On October 25, 2010, The Keys of Carolina paid a $26,500 penalty to the state of North Carolina to settle an investigation which began with the report of a 15-year-old Keys resident who was stabbed in the eye with a nail by another resident.  The attacked occurred after one of the residents gossiped about the other having been raped as a child—information he’d gathered from the other resident’s records, which had been left unattended by Keys staff.  The Keys failed to report the incident to the state, as required.  Further investigation uncovered additional (but unfortunately, not uncommon in the psychiatric hospital world) problems including training deficiencies, use of improper restraint techniques and other incidents of violence.[3]

• Police were called to UHS’ Palmetto Behavioral Health facility in Summerville, South Carolina 128 times since February 2006, including 19 calls for missing persons and runaways, 42 reports of assaults and three reports of sexual assaults. In one incident, a 15-year-old resident was accused of attacking and beating a 64-year-old woman after he slipped away from the facility.  She has filed a lawsuit against the facility, accusing it of gross negligence and recklessness.[4]

• Police were called to UHS’ Palmetto Behavioral Health facility in North Charleston, South Carolina 98 times in the last five years, including 13 runaways and missing persons calls, 22 assault calls and six reports of sexual assault.[5]

This information has been added to “Universal Health Services: Profits Over Patients.”

 

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[1]“Universal Health Services facilities under scrutiny,” The Post and Courier, May 15, 2011and Memorandum of Agreement to The Pines Residential Treatment Center from Commissioner of Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, April 25, 2011.

[2] “Universal Health Services facilities under scrutiny,” The Post and Courier, May 15, 2011and Statement of Deficiencies and Plan of Correction, Old Vineyard Youth Services, ID number MHH0188, North Carolina Division of Health Service Regulation,April 29, 2010.

[3] “Universal Health Services facilities under scrutiny,” The Post and Courier, May 15, 2011and Statement of Deficiencies and Plan of Correction, The Keys of Carolina, ID number MHL060-600, North Carolina Division of Health Service Regulation, November 3, 2009.

[4] Glenn Smith, “Cops no stranger to Palmetto Summerville Behavioral Health,” Post and Courier, May 15, 2011 and Summerville Police Law Incident Address History, by Date Reported, 2/12/06 to 4/21/11.

[5] Glenn Smith, “Cops no stranger to Palmetto Summerville Behavioral Health,” Post and Courier, May 15, 2011 and Calls for service report of the North Charleston Police, 2/12/05 to 3/19/11.

Ohio clinical social worker Melissa Humbert suspended for sex with former client

On May 21, 2010, the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, Marriage & Family Therapist Board suspended licensed social worker Melissa K. Humber for two years for “entering into a sexual relationship with an ex-client within 5 years after terminating the therapeutic relationship and continued until approximately January 2010.  Upon resuming practice following her suspension, Humbert must be monitored in all aspects of her practice for two years.

Source: Consent Agreement between Melissa K. Humbert and the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, Marriage & Family Therapist Board.

Suit against counseling center alleges booze, sex instead of treatment

A woman who sought treatment for alcoholism at a Spanaway counseling center contends in a lawsuit that she instead was plied with liquor and forced by a worker there into an unwanted sexual relationship.

The 43-year-old woman seeks unspecified damages in a suit filed Monday in Pierce County Superior Court. The suit names Clay Vince Statewright, Alternative Counseling, Action Counseling and Kassuhn Inc. as defendants.

Statewright, 52, worked as a chemical dependency counselor at Alternative Counseling and Action Counseling, which are owned by Kassuhn, the suit states. The woman alleges Statewright forced alcohol, and ultimately himself, on her on numerous occasions in 2008.

The woman seeks damages for, among other things, assault and battery, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

“Instead of providing the treatment she needed and they agreed to give her, defendants made her condition worse by negligently and recklessly providing ineffective and harmful treatment, including exploitation of her vulnerable conditions,” the suit states.

The woman, whom The News Tribune is not naming, was granted a temporary sexual assault protection order against Statewright in Pierce County Superior Court in August 2009.

She also filed a complaint about him with the state Department of Health, which regulates chemical dependency counselors.

The department suspended Statewright’s credential on Sept. 8, 2010, “pending further disciplinary proceedings,” according to an order issued by the department.

Attempts to reach Statewright for comment this week were unsuccessful.

In 2006, he told a judge in an unrelated case that he had overcome a drinking problem of his own, was working as a drug/alcohol counselor and was becoming a domestic violence counselor, according to court records.

Betty Kassuhn of Kassuhn Inc. said she fired Statewright after the state yanked his license. She declined further comment until she could review the lawsuit and speak to her corporate attorney.

The woman sought treatment at Alternative Counseling in August 2008 after being arrested for driving under the influence. Statewright became her treatment provider, the suit states.

He allegedly told her he had the power to keep her out of jail and that she didn’t really need treatment, according to the suit.

During one of her first sessions, Statewright insisted they leave the office and go to a nearby bar and restaurant, where he bought her numerous drinks, the suit alleges.

He later told her to follow him home, where he gave her more alcohol and ultimately persuaded her to have sex, according to the suit.

“After leaving the defendant Statewright’s house, (the woman) was stopped on her way home by a police officer,” the suit states. “She was again charged with driving under the influence.”

For nearly four months, Statewright used coercion, threats and other means to maintain control over the woman, according to the suit.

At one point, after the woman was put on electronic home monitoring following one of her DUI arrests, Statewright allegedly instructed a worker at Alternative Counseling to forge a letter from a local church that then was sent to the company providing the monitoring.

The letter asked officials to allow the woman to leave her home to attend church services and Bible studies, the suit states. In reality, it was so she could meet with Statewright, according to the suit.

“His control over (the woman) was relentless, and the alcohol and sexual abuse was continuous,” the suit states.

The woman “finally managed to break away” from Statewright in November 2008 and later began counseling at the Sexual Assault Center of Pierce County.

In January 2011, the woman again was charged with DUI – this time a felony – after a breath test registered her blood-alcohol level at 0.163, court records indicate. The legal limit for driving in Washington is 0.08.

She’s been jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail since, but Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff allowed her to travel to Tumwater earlier this month to testify at Statewright’s administrative hearing regarding the future of his counseling credential.

A final decision on Statewright’s credential is expected before the end of August, said Gordon McCracken, a spokesman with the state Department of Health.

Source:  Adam Lynn, “Suit alleges booze, sex instead of treatment at Spanaway counseling center Spanaway: Counselor accused of taking advantage of weakness,” The Bellingham Herald,  May, 25, 2011

Psych unit terminates six employees after suicide investigation

This story is reminiscent of that of Esmin Green, who died in Summer 2008 in the waiting room of the psychiatric unit of a Brooklyn, New York hospital–utterly ignored by staff–all of which was captured on psych ward surveillance video. This past March, the King’s County (New York) District Attorney filed criminal charges on two psych unit staffers for falsifying Green’s records to make it look like she was alive and well, when corresponding video footage shows she was lying on the floor of the waiting room, convulsing.

Story:

CoxHealth (a hospital in Springfield, Missouri) terminated six employees and overhauled its policies for psychiatric patients after a suicide at Cox North in December. A

n inspection, triggered when CoxHealth self-reported the suicide to the state, found that employees falsified paperwork about how often they checked on the safety of psychiatric patients.

Anthony Gillham, 34, who was described as homeless in state reports, hanged himself in a 50-minute period on Dec. 5 when staff at the Adult Psychiatry I unit failed to monitor him as required, according to a report from the state Department of Health and Senior Services. The report said employees filled out paperwork indicating that they had checked on him every 15 minutes, but video showed the man hadn’t been checked on from 4:20 p.m. to about 5:10 p.m., when the man’s roommate discovered him and began screaming.

The inspection, done after the state Department of Health and Senior Services was notified Dec. 7, found that the problems at Cox North “created an unsafe psychiatric patient care environment.” The inspection, which began Dec. 9, found that the hospital was out of compliance with federal requirements to receive payments from Medicare and Medicaid. That means the hospital was at risk of losing these payments.

Jacqueline Lapine, the spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Senior Services, said the hospital took immediate action to correct the problem. When the agency left on Dec. 15, the safety of psychiatric patients was no longer considered to be in immediate jeopardy, Lapine said.

Lapine said Cox had 90 days to fix the problems that could have affected payments from Medicare and Medicaid. The agency returned to survey the hospital and found conditions acceptable.

Laurie Duff, the vice president of corporate communications for CoxHealth, said the company “is committed to providing patients with the best and safest possible care.”

Gillham’s death is the only suicide that has happened at the psychiatric facility. The hospital has four inpatient units for psychiatric patients – two adult, one senior adult, and one child/adolescent. The first unit opened in the 1980s.

Nationwide, there were 67 suicides at hospitals last year, according to The Joint Commission which accredits hospitals. Two suicides were reported at hospitals in Missouri last year.

“We are greatly saddened by this tragic event and offer our deepest sympathies to the patient’s family,” Duff said in a statement. “Due to privacy laws and pending litigation, we are unable to discuss the details of the situation. However, we can say that we have taken this situation very seriously. Immediately following the incident, we conducted a thorough investigation and put in place extensive additional measures to ensure the safety of the patients on the unit. We also self-reported the incident to the Department of Health and Human Services and cooperated fully with its investigation. We submitted our plan of correction to DHHS, which was approved, and all items outlined in our plan have been implemented.”

The News-Leader was unable to find any civil lawsuits connected to the death in online records or at the Greene County Clerk’s Office. However, sometimes litigation can be signaled with a notice to a party without a public docket being started.

Changes outlined in the correction plan include requiring psychiatric patients to remain in view of hospital staff during waking hours, hiring more employees to help monitor the patients, and checking patients at 12- to 18-minute intervals. That is designed to limit patients’ ability to predict when they will be checked.

The hospital also removed potentially unsafe objects from patient rooms such as heavy shower curtains and updated a policy for resuscitating patients.

The hospital told state regulators that six staff members were put on administrative leave and terminated in January “for improper documentation and/or inadequate supervision.” Staff members were not identified by name, but they included a charge nurse and a unit manager. An assistant unit manager “was counseled and placed on an action plan to address deficiencies in supervising,” according to the plan of correction CoxHealth gave the state.

Fifty-two patients were at the Cox North psychiatric units about the time Gillham died. The facility is licensed for 72 psychiatric beds. The psychiatric ward provides treatment for people with mental disorders, including patients who are suicidal.

The News-Leader obtained the details of the suicide at CoxNorth after a records request to the state seeking its most recent inspection reports for the CoxHealth system. Other details from the state’s findings, called a “summary statement of deficiencies,” include:

• Gillham, who was unemployed and estranged from his family, had been living in a homeless shelter and had previously attempted suicide. He was released from another psychiatric facility about a day and a half before coming to the emergency room complaining about auditory hallucinations and thoughts of harming himself. He was admitted to the psychiatric unit for recurrent major depression.

• On Dec. 5, Gillham talked about plans for Christmas and was looking forward to positive things, according to a review of medical records mentioned in the agency’s report. Paperwork said that staff at Cox North had checked on him at 4 p.m., 4:15 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. and indicated that he was behaving appropriately. But video showed that staff didn’t check on Gillham after 4:20 p.m. At 4:23 p.m., he was seen on video sticking his head out of the room and looking into the hallway. At 4:24 p.m., the door to the room closed. At 5:10 p.m., Gillham’s roommate found him with a sheet tied around his neck and looped over the door.

• Employees told an investigator that they would at times — the report didn’t note how often — write that they had done safety checks on psychiatric patients even though those checks hadn’t been performed.

• After Gillham was discovered, an employee called for help in trying to resuscitate him, but didn’t use the switchboard, meaning emergency room staff weren’t notified. The call was limited to the intercom for psychiatric units only. Advanced life support efforts didn’t start until Gillham was taken to the emergency room at Cox North.

• The investigation also found that the psychiatric facility was short-staffed on the day Gillham died with only one psychiatric technician responsible for 13 patients in the section that Gillham was in. On Dec. 5 one of the psychiatric technicians assigned to cover the 3 to 11 p.m. shift called in sick, leaving only two technicians assigned to the adult halls.

The staffing guidelines called for the charge nurse to ensure sufficient staffing, but the hospital told the state that the employee failed to secure additional staffing or ask for help in getting additional staffing.

Source: Sarah Okeson, “Hospital terminates 6 employees after death investigation,” News-Leader, May 13, 2011.

“Pill mill” psychiatrist Nathan Kuemmerle sentenced to probation

A former West Hollywood psychiatrist who wrote prescriptions without a legitimate medical purpose to make money to pay for his methamphetamine addiction was sentenced today to three years probation.

Dr. Nathan Kuemmerle, 38, of Hollywood, pleaded guilty last January in Los Angeles federal court to a single charge of distribution of a controlled substance, specifically 180 tablets of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax.

When charged along with his office manager in April 2010, federal prosecutors called Kuemmerle the No. 1 prescriber of the most powerful dosage of Adderall in the state during the previous year.

He was also said to be the second-largest prescriber of the class of federally regulated drugs that includes the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone.

After his arrest, Kuemmerle began a court-ordered process of residential drug rehabilitation. He told U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee today that he had recently graduated from the program.

Deputy Federal Public Defender John L. Littrell said his client’s conduct was negligent and careless, but not as egregious as the prosecution initially alleged.

“The government has portrayed Dr. Kuemmerle as being the leader of the conspiracy … but I think they’ve got it wrong,” the attorney said in arguing for probation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Christensen told Gee that Kuemmerle broke the law because he was “a drug addict. That is what motivated him … to get money” to buy meth.

Littrell added that Kuemmerle, who has not attempted to renew his medical license, has “had to overcome the fact that he’s gay … that he’s got HIV … and that he was addicted to methamphetamine.”

In sentencing him to time served and three years under supervised release, Gee said that Kuemmerle, while highly educated, was involved in an “unhealthy lifestyle” and suffered from arrogance.

“Many of the so-called smartest guys in the room have met their downfall” as a result of hubris, the judge said.

Gee said Kuemmerle poses no risk to the community “as long as he remains drug-free and does not have access to a prescription pad.”

Kuemmerle was arrested in April 2010 at his home by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Redondo Beach police.

Kuemmerle’s office manager, Antonie “Tony” Phillips, 29, of Koreatown, was arrested the same day at the doctor’s clinic on Santa Monica Boulevard, and has since pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He is set to be sentenced by Gee on Monday.

The investigation began in 2009, when Redondo Beach police arrested an individual who offered Adderall for sale on the Craigslist website, prosecutors said.

That person fingered Kuemmerle as the source of the Adderall, claiming the psychiatrist wrote prescriptions on numerous occasions without any medical examination, and that he would write prescriptions for various names during a single visit.

Kuemmerle said he was “shocked and horrified” when he saw undercover tapes of how he behaved at the clinic while he was under the influence.

“I could have put my patients’ lives in jeopardy,” he told the court, adding that he was grateful to the judge for having had the opportunity to get clean.

“You saved my life,” he told the judge. “Thank you.”

Source: “Former Psychiatrist Gets Probation In ‘Pill Mill’ Case,” Beverly Hills Courier, May 18, 2011.

Psychiatrist Kimberly Hammes Frank arrested for attempting to abduct stranger’s children

On April 6, 2011, Wisconsin psychiatrist Kimberly Hammes Frank was arrested in Collier County, Florida for attempting to abduct two children from a Naples beach.

She was charged with felony child abuse without great harm.

News reports state that a mother was playing with her three children (ages 4, 8 and 9) in the water when Frank approached them and grabbed the two oldest ones and began screaming “These are my kids, Mattie and Meredith” and attempted to reason with the mother that the children were actually hers.

The father had to pry Frank’s hands off the children.

Frank refused to be interviewed by Collier County detectives.

Source: “Child psychiatrist charged with trying to take children from family at Naples beach,” Marco Eagle, April 7, 2011

Psychiatrist Sekilar Sabaratnam loses license following fraud-related scheme

On February 8, 2011, the Medical Board of California issued a Notice of Automatic Suspension of License on Los Angeles psychiatrist Sekilar Sabaratnam (aka Rudra Sabaratnam), based on a criminal conviction related to the delivery of health care services.

On August 30, 2010, Sabaratnam pleaded guilty to the charge of Payment of Kickbacks for Patient Referrals, Causing and Act to be Done and was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison.

According to a press release issued by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Sabaratnam, who was the Chief Executive Officer of City of Angels Medical Center, admitted to paying kickbacks as part of a scheme to defraud Medicare and Medi-Cal (the California state Medicaid program) by recruiting homeless persons to receive unnecessary health services, paying out nearly $500,000 in illegal kickbacks.

As part of his sentence, he was required to make restitution of $4.1 million to the Medicare and Medi-Cal programs.

Source: “Former hospital C.E.O. pleads guilty to paying kickbacks in ‘skid row’ healthcare fraud scheme,” press release of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, December 12, 2008.