Medicare

The Cover of the April 24 Print Edition

Thieves' Bazaar: Hospitals, doctors and dealers have made Medicare the nation's sweetest crime. The feds are now trying to shutter the door.

Missouri Hospital Under Attack For Barring Gay Partner Visitation Rights

A change.org petition is in the works as angry comments continue to accumulate on the Facebook page for Research Medical Center in suburban Kansas City. Yesterday, news broke that it forced a gay man from the bedside of his sick partner. In an interview with FOX 4 News, Roger Gorley says that he w ... More >>

Debates Got You Bored? 7 Badass Feats of Strength from Politicians

As the general election approaches, candidates try harder than ever to court voters (except not really in Missouri). If you're like Daily RFT, you've grown weary of the debates and heated verbal sparring. Back in ye olde days, when brains fell short, candidates seeking public office courted the publ ... More >>

The Ten Most Egregious Tax Loopholes in the U.S.

Is St. Louis Better Off with Obama or Romney? There's an App For That

If Romney takes the White House this November, you'll want to be a Maplewood resident. According to an app developed by two students from the University of California, Berkeley, the benefits of another term for Obama vs a new start with Romney will be felt very differently, zip code by zip code ... More >>

Dr. Abid Nisar Gets Probation and a $250K Fine for Prescribing Misbranded Drugs to Cancer Patients

Dr. Abid Nisar, he of the $2 million manse in Town & Country, received his sentence today for purchasing $352,504 worth of unlicensed and non-FDA approved cancer drugs from foreign distributors and dispensing them to his patients. Nisar had previously entered a guilty plea to receiving misbrande ... More >>

The Mega-Mansion of Indicted Town & Country Doctor Abid Nasir

​You may have heard last week about Abid Nisar, a local oncologist who pleaded guilty to selling off-brand chemotherapy drugs not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. But have you seen his outrageous Town & Country abode?According to a federal indictment, Nisar began purchasing unregu ... More >>

Steelman For Payroll Tax Cut, Akin Against Payroll Tax Cut, Brunner... Against?

​A few days ago, the Springfield News-Leader published a Q&A with the three candidates in Missouri's GOP Senate primary race. It's still early in the race and Sarah Steelman, Rep. Todd Akin and John Brunner have all positioned themselves as rock solid conservative candidates. As such, it's a ... More >>

Missouri's GOP Senate Candidates Seek to Create Space in Ideological Cluster

Who will face off against Senator McCaskill in November 2012?​The race for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination in Missouri runs around a thin, muddy track. There isn't much elbow rooms for the candidates, three self-described conservative Republicans with no significant differences in policy positions ... More >>

Post-Dispatch Sued (Again) Over Retiree Benefits

​The beleaguered St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- already fending off a lawsuit from the Newspaper Guild over retiree benefits -- now faces another suit from the union representing its mailroom workers.The CWA Local 14620, also known as the St. Louis Mailers Union No. 3, represents the 220 employees who ... More >>

Todd Akin: Doubts Climate Change, Constitutionality of Medicare

Akin touts his Tea Party credentials.​Congressman Todd Akin showed off his conservative bona fides Saturday in a meeting with Tea Party activists in Fulton. Akin, who's hoping to win the Republican primary for Senate, told the group that global warming is "highly suspect" and that he's proud of hi ... More >>

Missouri Senate Race Narratives Emerge from Debt Ceiling Debate

Getcha popcorn ready: campaign season is heating up.​The narratives for one of the most high-profile senate races in America have begun to form. With the public's eyes on Capitol Hill for last couple of weeks, the major players -- Senator Claire McCaskill, Congressman Todd Akin, and former Sta ... More >>

Todd Akin is One of Those Republicans Willing to See America Default on Debt

​Depending on which prominent economist you talk to, a failure to raise the debt ceiling by 12:00 a.m. (EST) August 2, 2011 would either be "doomsday," "calamitous," "a calamity," "serious, and we probably would be thrown into a recession," "could provoke a renewed financial crisis," or someth ... More >>

Pseudoephedrine Ban Pushed in Four Missouri Counties

Sudafed could become presciption-only in four Missouri counties.​Feeling sniffly? If you live in St. Charles or Franklin county, before you get your hands on some Sudafed, you could soon be required to see your doctor and get a prescription first.County officials there tell the St. Louis Post-Disp ... More >>

Missouri Senator Rob Schaaf on Meth Lab Law: "I Will Stand Up There and Talk Until This Bill Dies"

State Senator Rob Schaaf​Meth problem or no meth problem, Missouri State Senator Rob Schaaf thinks you deserve the right to take your Sudafed -- without seeing a doctor first.Daily RFT checked in yesterday with Schaaf, a part-time family physician/ state senator representing northwest Missouri. We ... More >>

Sinquefield's Tax Reform Labeled "Fiscally Untenable"; Could Require 12% Sales Tax

jamesrmoody.comJames Moody​An analysis of nine ballot initiatives financier Rex Sinquefield submitted to state officials this month calling for the elimination of Missouri's income tax has concluded that the state would require a sales tax of 12 percent in order to make up for lost revenue if any ... More >>

Sorry State: Are Mexicans the reason behind New Mexico's dismal state rankings?

Barnes Hospital to Patients: We Don't Want You Back

image viaY'all don't come back here, ya hear?​You'd think that once you're discharged from the hospital, you're no longer sick. Right? But a 2009 study by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that in 2004, one in five Medicare beneficiaries was readmitted to the hospital within ... More >>

Senate Debate: Carnahan Goes for the Jugular; Blunt Dons His Teflon Suit and Counterattacks

​Robin Carnahan wasted no time going after her Republican opponent, Roy Blunt, in the first face-off between the two candidates yesterday. Sporting an aqua-marine blouse, Carnahan leaned on the dais during her two-minute opening statement and blasted Blunt with allegations made in her campaign ads ... More >>

The Straight Dope on Missouri Tobacco-Smokers

​About 23 percent of Missouri's adults still proudly identify as smokers, according to a new report by Washington University's Center for Tobacco Policy Research (CTPR). That means our state has one of the highest population of smokers in the country. Of all those unrepentant smokers, nearly ... More >>

Drug Company Caught Bribing Docs with Cardinals Tickets

​Forest Laboratories makes drugs and money, and plenty of both. And apparently, they bribe docs so that they can make even more money.On Wednesday, as reported by the New York Times, Forest -- and their St. Louis-based subsidiary, Forest Pharmaceuticals -- agreed to pay a $313 million settlement i ... More >>

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder Plans Federal Lawsuit to Stop Health Care Reform

​Whoa. Just finished watching the video clip of Fox New's Greta Van Sustern interviewing Missouri Lieutenant Peter Kinder this week. And I just got to say, apart from the time the Addams Family met the Munsters on Family Feud, has a more physically unbecoming pairing ever graced a television show? ... More >>

Measured Thoughts on Obama's Health Care Speech

cnn.com​Did you watch President Barack Obama's speech last night to Congress? If not, you can view the entire 48-minute address here. Overall, I thought the president's plan seemed to make sense as well as address some of the sticking points conservatives have with the bill. But then, what do I kn ... More >>

St. Louis Twitterati Cover the McCaskill Town Hall Meeting on Healthcare

​Senator Claire McCaskill held a town hall meeting on healthcare reform yesterday in Hillsboro. Oh sure, you could have watched it live on at least a couple of cable outlets. Or...if you were following the right people on Twitter, you could have read up-to-the-minute updates in (almost) real time. ... More >>

Clayton's "Heartbreak Hotel," a dirty mouth and criminal foot doctors all make headlines

Podiatry and Crime: Who Knew?

focusedfootcare.comUntil this past week, we here at Daily RFT had no idea about the clear connection between foot medicine and crime. But certainly such a connection exists. Consider the case of David Quang Pham. He's the St. Louis podiatrist indicted last week for fraudulently billing Medicaid and ... More >>

Podiatrist Charged With Bilking Medicaid; Billed Amputees with No Feet

flickr.com/photos/noprawnsDr. Pham, I presume?At first glance a press release today from the U.S. Attorney's office looks like dozens of dull media alerts the prosecutor routinely sends out alleging Medicaid fraud. Then I noticed this outrageous line in the release regarding podiatrist David Quang P ... More >>

The Return of Oil Can!

We've all seen that movie, the one with Dennis Quaid, and he used to be a big prospect pitcher, but he blew out his arm, right? And then he goes to big league camp one year, after he's been coaching little league for like ten years, and all of a sudden he can throw like a hundred miles an hour? Yeah ... More >>

SPECIAL DIA DE LOS IM­PUESTOS EDITION

Going Down Slow

Bennie Smith and a dwindling cadre of St. Louis music pioneers have a right to sing the blues

Know News?

The year in review: A quiz (For answers, see last page)

Wrap the Pimp

We raise our glass to John Goodman, the Cubs (please don't hit us) and the almighty Pimp; plus, not everyone is buying what the Department of Homeland Security is selling

Taken and Shaken

Week of February 26, 2003

Father Knows Best

Lawrence Biondi radically remakes St. Louis University, leaving resentment in his wake

Peeling the Onion

Onion Horton says he's everything a white man wants a black man to be

Letters to the Editor

Published the week of Aug. 30-Sept. 5, 2000

Unhealthy Relationship

John Ashcroft gets a shot in the arm from the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, as well as other lobbying groups opposed to a true Patients' Bill of Rights

Will the Real John Ashcroft Please Stand Up?

Missouri's junior senator says he is a pro-consumer health-care reformist. But the insurance companies, HMOs and big business, which give him millions, think he's on their side.

Hand-Me-Down District

After 32 years, Bill Clay is retiring from his congressional seat. He wants to leave it to his son, but a crowded, eccentric field of candidates is contesting the will.

This Ain't No Party

Ross Perot launched the Reform Party as the voice of the American people. Eight years later, it's a shrill, staticky free-for-all, and the moderates can't get heard.

Letters to the Editor

Published the week of June 14-20, 2000

Waiting to Exhale

Dr. Joel Cooper pioneered lung-volume-reduction surgery to save the lives of thousands of emphysema patients. Now he wants the government to get out of the way.

The Olmstead Challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court says it's time to end segregation: People with disabilities must be allowed to leave institutions and move into the community. Sounds great -- except the state's overwhelmed and the community's nowhere near ready.

Seeing Red

After years of taking it on the chin, Bob Goeggel struck back at his competitor. Thanks to his accusations of fraud, the state's largest ambulance company is on the operating table and the feds are doing the cutting.

Internal Bleeding

St. John's Mercy Medical Center alienated their RNs when they turned to less experienced caregivers to save money. Now they're paying for it.

Wigged Out

Insurance-company evil comes in all sizes

Radio Active

WGNU-AM hosts Virginia McCarthy and Ray Ytzaina field phone calls fast and furious from their devoted listeners