-Caveat Lector-
Jackbooted Thugs Raid Hospital
The Associated Press
KNOXVILLE -- A small rural hospital in McMinn County with no history
of violence was raided by 37 armed, flak-jacketed agents on a mission to
collect Medicare and Medicaid records.
The American Hospital Association and the Tennessee Hospital
Association are outraged by the Feb. 24 seizures at four locations owned
or operated by the 72-bed East Tennessee facility, Woods Memorial
Hospital District, Etowah.
"Send in the accountants with pocket protectors to seize the records
Don't send in the FBI agents with guns and flak jackets," Craig Becker
of the Tennessee Hospital Association told the Knoxville News--Sentinel.
"This is inappropriate behavior," said Mary Grealy, chief counsel
for the American Hospital Association. :I don't think this should ever
occur at a hospital. This is not the same as if you were dealing with
drugs or something like that.
Hospital employees claim agents "constantly trampled through sterile
areas" where patients receive dialysis treatment, wouldn't let them use
the restore or answer a phone without permission and kept a dozen
workers in a small room for about an hour while records were checked.
The inspector general's office at the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services oversaw the operation. Agents involved came from the
FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the Tennessee Valley Authority and
the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Judy Holz, a spokeswoman for the HHS' inspector general, disputed
some of the employees' claims. She said no one was detained more than
10 minutes.
"Our policy is to go in and cause minimal disruption and have utmost
respect for both the patients and the employees," she said.
Agents routinely carry weapons during a seizure, she said, in case
they must "protect themselves...(or) control the environment."
But hospital spokesman Chris Trew said, "This is a modern hospital
facility with well-educated physicians, well-educated staff. There was
no danger that was posed to these folks (agents). They did not have to
come in armed."
Holz said no charges have been filed in the Etowah hospital case,
though such investigations can take two to five years.
Meantime, the hospital groups are lobbying Congress to require the
Justice Department to establish guidelines for future raids at hospitals
so agents will have to leave their guns and bulletproof vests at the
door.
Johnson City Press, Wednesday, April 14, 1999, p.12.
---------------
"The fundamental basis of this nation's law was given to Moses on the
Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the
teaching we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul.
I don't think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don't have
the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a
totalitarian government which does not believe in the right for
anybody except the state."
-President Harry S. Truman
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