LINK Blast - March 5, 2014

DHS Declares War on The Scooter Store

FBI Declares War on The Scooter Store

By Dashiell Bennett | The Atlantic Wire – 4 hrs ago

Approximately 150 federal and state law enforcement agents launched a massive raid on one of the biggest perpetrators of government fraud in America: The Scooter Store. Yes, that's right. The nation's largest provider of single-person electric vehicles and power chairs is the target of a federal investigation, probably because many of the people who ride around their "personal mobility devices" don't actually need them.

In January, CBS This Morning ran a cutting exposé on the company, detailing how it "railroads" doctors into prescribing the chair for their patients, most of whom are on Medicare or Medicaid. That way they can bill the government for their highly dubious medical device, while the patient gets a cool new scooter without paying for it, and The Scooter Store makes a nice profit. Doctors and former employees told CBS that the company would harass physicians with non-stop phone calls and offices drop-ins in order to wear them down. The company even has a special department devoted to getting chairs for patients who had already been ruled ineligible by Medicare. No doubt the pressure comes because their ads guarantee that the chair will be free if they can't get you qualified.

The Scooter Store is so good at getting the chairs that a government audit found that they had overbilled Medicare by over $100 million between 2009-2012. It's no wonder their ads brag that "No other company will work harder to make you mobile."

FBI agents would not provide details on any crimes or possible charges behind the search warrant, but 1,200 employees of the company were escorted from the headquarters in New Braunfels, Texas, on Wednesday, and were not allowed back into today, as investigators continue to dig for clues. Police also searched a related management company that The Scooter Store's sales records.

http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-declares-war-scooter-store-165141419--fin...

Favorite

0 members favorited this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chip on June 15, 2013 at 6:30pm

And still no one prosecutes the banksters. This is chump change in comparison.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by James μολὼν λαβέ on June 15, 2013 at 6:37pm

Dont you feel safer America?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by H●ȴȴɣwͼͽd on June 15, 2013 at 6:39pm

Tom Kruse bamboozled the bastiches, they want pay back

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by H●ȴȴɣwͼͽd on June 15, 2013 at 7:07pm

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by James μολὼν λαβέ on June 15, 2013 at 7:35pm

hahaha sweet pic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2D2fP6yBzU&list=PLGjbAdaOBLBkai...

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Vincent L. Guarisco on June 15, 2013 at 7:37pm

Is this the best the FBI can do? Going after a scooter store? What a joke! With all the injustices and corruption and corporate crime, they clamp-down on a scooter store? Now I heard it all...

Oh hell yes, I'll sleep much better knowing the scooter crooks are behind bars. LMAO

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by H●ȴȴɣwͼͽd on June 15, 2013 at 8:50pm

if this Co. had fleeced the US people, USGovt wouldn't have lifted a finger, but oh, you rob from the bankster criminals, there will be immediate and swift justice