Thursday, April 7, 2016

Health services CEO ruthlessly took advantage of the terminally ill and elderly, killing patients for profit


A Texas based healthcare company has been accused of expediting the deaths of hospice patients via drug overdoses in order to increase profits, according to a report by NBC 5. Brad Harris, 34, founded Novus Health Care Services, Inc. in July 2012, state records show. The company is based in Frisco.

Individuals employed with Novus accuse Harris of making heartless comments about hospice patients living too long. He allegedly instructed nurses to speed up their death by doubling, tripling and quadrupling their medication.

Harris, an accountant with no medical background, reportedly "instructed a nurse to administer overdoses to three patients and directed another employee to increase a patient's medication to four-times the maximum allowed," the FBI wrote in an affidavit for a search warrant obtained by the local news.

'Hastening the death' of hospice patients

"You need to make this patient go bye-bye," Harris allegedly wrote in a text sent to a nurse employed with Novus. In the first instance, the nurse refused her boss's instructions, but the FBI affidavit is unclear as to whether or not any hospice patients were harmed by Harris' lethal business model.

Apparently, healthcare providers have an incentive to get rid of patients fast because they do not "make more money for longer hospice stays," reports NBC 5. According to the FBI, hospices are subject to an "aggregator cap," which limits Medicare and Medicaid payments based on the average annual hospice stay.  (Continue Reading)

Full Article & Source:
Health services CEO ruthlessly took advantage of the terminally ill and elderly, killing patients for profit

2 comments: