Media, Lawsuits and Insurance

[Deborah]

I was going through some old posts and found this nugget of wisdom regarding the media, lawsuits, and insurance companies. Thought it might be appropriate given some of the dialogue of late.

********************************
this is tommyfromhyde
Face, remember, when she or anybody else
wins [he's refering to a mom who enrolled her teen then removed him and filed a lawsuit]
we want the insurance industry to get
the message that when they cover these
programs that they expose themselves to huge
judgements. That'll shut'em down faster than
anything else.
---------------
         
this is tommyfromhyde again
In other words, the press coverage that
counts is in the buissness press and especially
the insurance industry press.
Peace,
Tommy
***************************************

I think this is an area we activist could really work. Without insurance coverage many programs would fold. Can't stop the second mortgages or the use of college funds, but we could draw attention to insurance.

It's fraud when a facility registers with their state as a boarding school, yet advertises to the public as a Therapeutic Facility and receives government funds for special education or insurance companies for mental disorders. They shouldn't have it both ways. Either they're a traditional boarding school or a psuedo psych facility with an academic component.

I know this was the case with the TBS I'm familiar with, and I'm sure (know) there are others.

How do we draw attention to this?
If you know of a program that is running this scam, do the preliminary research and pass it off to a worthy journalist.

If you are privy to which insurance companies are being defrauded, write them a letter. Provide solid evidence. If you happen to be a customer, let them know you don't want your premiums to increase due to this fraud. We all pay when insurance is abused.

And the programs need to have their feet put to the fire, one or the other. Can't have your cake and eat it too.

Every little bit helps.
Deborah

[Janet]

Deborah, I processed medical insurance and worked for a large insurance company for 12  years off and on.  Insurance companies are very restrictive on what constitutes a psychiatric hospital, the only place they will pay for psychological care.  Policies that have coverage for substance abuse also have restrictive definitions on what constitutes a rehab facility.  They have some way of investigating a facility/hospital and keep a list of approved facilities in all claims paying offices.

Therefore, if anyone has had their medical insurance covering  a WWASP facility or other BM facilities, that person should call the insurance company and find out what kind of investigation was done to get approval for the facility.  If the answer is unsatisfactory or confusing, they should ask the claims paying office to request an investigator look into the facility and its licenses.

You are correct, everyone pays for fraudelent claims.  Actually, whatever the employer pays for the insurance premium is really part of the employee's salary.

[FaceKhan]

Even if WWASP was considered a legitimate psychiatric hospital, very few insurance plans cover indefinite stays. Most only pay for the first week up to three months, thats why the appeal of sending misbehaving teens to private mental wards went away after the late 70's and early 80's because insurance stopped paying the 300-800 dollar a day charges.

[Anonymous]

Let's not forget that every school needs liability
insurance. How can we make the liability carriers
very paranoid about the "kid-fixing, attitude-adjusting"
sort of boarding school?
The insurance buissness is looking for any
excuse to cancel policies just now.

[MelissaR]

Yah, I don't think that is the best angle to take. Most of the parents who attempt to gain coverage of WWASP facilities under their medical insurance realize what THEY are doing is fraudulent because WWASP does not present itself as a psychiatric hospital. I doubt there are many people openly willing to audit themselves and lose money for the sake of this cause. WWASP does claim that "some parents have been able to do it," though. I'm assuming these parents are savvy business people and assumed the risk with insurance fraud..... but that's a dangerous track to cross, I think.

[Jeff_Berryman]

I talked to a lawyer's investigator recently who was getting interested in WWASP.  Before that he investigated nursing homes in Texas.  The first time his law firm got a big judgment against a nursing home there, every lawyer in Texas became an advocate for nursing home reform.  They badgered the biggest operator in the state into selling off over two hundred facilities and leaving Texas.  He was of the opinion that one big judgment against WWASP or any major player in the BM industry would have much the same effect.  And that will drive the cost of their liability insurance out of reach.

[Anonymous]

Or, the Ripple Effect.  Since the schools are independently owned, what does that mean to the individual schools, not just, say TB or Casa?  Would they being going after each school independently.  Then what about schools that are also independent, say the 50 or so that are in Montana?  Would then, the so-called Christian based schools be exempt?  It would have to be one school at a time and ALL similar programs and schools would be under the same scrutiny.  WWasp schools are the target because they are a BIG target...yet all similar programs would need to be licensed, insured, etc.

Maybe when all viable help for parents are closed, then the ineffective state funded schools and the juvenile justice system is all that's left, or OMG - the dept of social services (JOKE) the ripple effect will be felt around the world.

[Anonymous]

Bills would regulate teen reform schools
By MATTHEW FRANCK Post-Dispatch
12/11/2002 09:00 PM



Rep. Barbara Wall Fraser and Missouri Senator Patrick Dougherty-(D)

Two St. Louis-area lawmakers have filed legislation to regulate religious teen reform schools, which have flocked to Missouri due partly to a lack of government oversight.

The bills by Sen. Pat Dougherty, D-St. Louis, and Rep. Barbara Wall Fraser, D-University City, would require the schools to shut down if they do not meet standards on health and safety.

As it is, the reform schools can operate largely as they see fit. Missouri is one of a few states that exempts religious child residential facilities from having to obtain a state license.

The exemption has attracted several reform schools to Missouri, where hundreds of teens from across the country enroll in strict discipline programs. A recent series of articles in the Post-Dispatch quoted numerous former students who claim they were mistreated at the schools, particularly at Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy, near Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Lawmakers have defeated several bills in recent years that would have regulated the residential programs. Each time, critics have said the legislation would interfere with religious freedom.

The two bills filed this month mimic ones sponsored last year by lawmakers who have since left office due to term limits.

Fraser's bill is the strictest, doing away entirely with the religious exemption that allows the programs to operate without a state license. Fraser could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but her office issued a prepared statement: "Missouri has mandatory licensure for facilities that house cats and dogs. I believe it not too much to ask that our children are provided protections for their health, safety and well-being in residential facilities in the state of Missouri."

Dougherty's bill would also subject the reform schools to regulation, but with some flexibility. The schools would be allowed to bypass a state license, provided they are accredited by a private organization that sets standards on safety.

A similar bill gained the support of a Senate committee this year before being defeated late in the session.

Dougherty said regulating the residential program is an uphill fight because lawmakers are hesitant to allow government to interfere in religious institutions.

But there are signs this year of broader support for regulation. Last month, an advisory group appointed by Gov. Bob Holden to deal with juvenile justice issues called for the elimination of the religious exemption. A spokesman for the governor could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Meanwhile, an interim Senate committee plans to tour Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy this month to familiarize lawmakers with the unregulated school. The committee is looking broadly into issues related to foster care and child residential programs.

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said Wednesday that he'll wait for the committee to complete its work before determining whether he might support regulating the reform schools.

[Anonymous]

On 2003-09-20 22:33:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Or, the Ripple Effect.  Since the schools are independently owned, what does that mean to the individual schools, not just, say TB or Casa?  Would they being going after each school independently.  Then what about schools that are also independent, say the 50 or so that are in Montana?  Would then, the so-called Christian based schools be exempt?  It would have to be one school at a time and ALL similar programs and schools would be under the same scrutiny.  WWasp schools are the target because they are a BIG target...yet all similar programs would need to be licensed, insured, etc.



Maybe when all viable help for parents are closed, then the ineffective state funded schools and the juvenile justice system is all that's left, or OMG - the dept of social services (JOKE) the ripple effect will be felt around the world."

Yeah, just *imagine*---how could humanity have *possibly* gotten along without BM jails for teens for ten thousand years.  If the cults are shut down the sky will fall!  Tragedy!

 :roll:

Or *maybe*, just *maybe*, these kids will reach chronological adulthood and leave their parents homes and have outcomes ranging from being *great* once they're away from wacky parents, or being your average casual weekend drug user with a not so great job and a not so great life but basically okay, or they'll get proper *outpatient* treatment and be fine, or they'll crash and burn and hit bottom and climb back out of the hole, or they'll crash and burn and won't climb back out of the hole....

Hey, that's pretty much like....NOW....  Only without the child abuse, the Stockholm Syndrome, the rotten shoddy lack of education in the BM facility, and the PTSD.

BM prisons are a scam to separate wealthy parents, who didn't have time for the kid in the first decade of his/her life, from their money while selling them plausible deniability--and a too good to be true quick fix--for their own bad choices that made the situation with their kid that they're so unhappy about---that is, when the "situation" is not mostly or entirely a figment of the gullible parents' imagination, induced by the confidence men and women who are running these scams.

It's a racket, it's a ripoff.  It's like the bazillion spam emails that turn up in your inbox selling herbal nostrums---nobody needs them, and the people who do have the real problems the nostrums propose to "cure" will not be helped by the quack remedy---but the quack will be helped by getting a fistful of his mark's money.

The world will be "harmed" by the demise of BM prisons as badly and irreparably as it was harmed by the demise of the phlogiston theory and the arrest of Miss Cleo.

Not at all.

[Anonymous]

WWASP MIGHT BE THE BIGGEST TEEN HELP ABUSIVE BUISNESS IN ITS KIND, BUT ONE THING FOR SURE IS IT ALSO HAS THE WORST REPUTATION OF ITS KIND.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0703/tushnet070903.asp