VA Disability Examiner Barred From Doing Business With Gov For Fraud
The Department of Transportation assisted in the investigation of one certified medical examiner doing exams for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Reports show James Lindsey, a chiropractor, was found guilty of theft for conducting fraudulent exams at VA for another company, Industrial Medical Center LLC. That company is owned by David Biersmith, where the owner conducted fraudulent drug tests for commercial truck drivers.
Biersmith conducted examinations and signed medical reports without a license or other medical credentials. The penalty was initially suspension, but the duo was ultimately debarred from doing business with the federal government for 5 years two weeks ago.
RELATED: Bankrupt VA Brain Surgeon Linked To Veteran Death
Biersmith was previously convicted of healthcare fraud and ordered to pay $40,000. Lindsey defrauded the government of $39,000.
Anyone want to bet how many veterans adversely impacted by the scheme were notified and brought in for redo examinations?
Probably zero, but who knows?
DOT Report On Examiner Fraud Scheme
According to DOT:
On April 20, 2017, Biersmith pleaded guilty to making false statements and to healthcare fraud in U.S. District Court, Kansas City, Missouri, related to fraudulent medical examinations of commercial truck drivers and veterans. Biersmith was the owner and president of IMC, which provided medical services to drivers of commercial motor vehicles, including drug tests and physical examinations required by FMCSA regulations. Although Biersmith did not have a medical license or other medical credentials, he signed the name of a legitimate chiropractor, without permission, on medical examination reports and medical examiner’s certificates for at least 65 commercial truck drivers.
On November 29, 2016, Lindsey, a certified medical examiner, pleaded guilty to theft of personal property, and on September 13, 2017, he was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Kansas City, Missouri. Under Biersmith’s direction, Lindsey performed disability examinations for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that he was not authorized to perform. Specifically, between August 2013 and December 2013, Lindsey participated in 53 examinations of veterans seeking disability ratings, and submitted to the VA approximately 209 Disability Benefits Questionnaires that falsely stated another doctor had performed these services. Biersmith was aware Lindsey was not qualified to conduct the exams. This fraudulent act cost the VA over $39,000.
DOT-OIG conducted this investigation with VA-OIG, Department of Labor (DOL)-OIG, DOL Employee Benefits Security Administration, and Department of Health and Human Services-OIG.
A Heads-up: If in tonight’s State Of The Union address, if POTUS claims the VA is getting cleaned-up and all better under his watch, while Shulkin and other piggies with funny hats schmerk and grimace in the background, I may just call the WH Veteran Bat Phone and call BS on it first & may be worth being taken away by team of white labcoat-clad DBC Extraction Team for some…readjustments of my attitude.
I’m recording the audio of the address for future dicing and stretching fun. Hey, it keeps me out of trouble, now where’s that cat with the vaporizer?
Now…I just need popcorn in 26 minutes…tick, tick, tick…wait for it…
Roseburg VA has highest opioid prescription rate in nation
CARISA CEGAVSKE Senior Staff Writer
The News-Review
Jan 12, 2018
“The Roseburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center has the highest rate of opioid prescriptions of any VA in the country, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
According to the report, 20 percent of all prescriptions veterans received at the VA pharmacy were opioids.”
Full Article At: https://www.nrtoday.com/news/veterans/roseburg-va-has-highest-opioid-prescription-rate-in-nation/article_d7aa92a6-3515-560a-80f7-5c001aa286b0.html
VA disability examiners, are a special type of parasitical vermin, the spawn of a morally bankrupt system, a system that is unconstitutionally incapable of decoding the truth. That’s the Lebanon VA, the shinning white dog turd of the VA system. They took from me ok, but they also took from my family and that’s never acceptable ever. The EPA should be investigating that place as a toxic dump super fund cleanup operation, but they probably know that already.
The OIG just released their review on Disruptive Behavior Committees. I will let Ben make his take on their findings. Of course, their findings do not add up to facts, just speculation.
#Accountability matters not recommendations .
Google for
“veterans affairs Report No. 17-04460-84”
and it will return the OIG report about the DBC. Pretty sick stuff.
You know what is interesting at first glance?
According to that report, the VA had no guidance addressing disruptive behavior as of 2012.
Since 2012, the VA has moved with all haste and speed to write policies, disseminate them, train employees, form committees and implement this process.
Why can the VA not do this with all policies? Why does it take years for the VA to implement procedures to comply with other laws passed by congress?
I bet this is one of the very few investigations the VA IG has ever conducted where they found “high compliance” in several areas.
Edited to add: Seems directors failed to establish Employee Threat Assessment Teams to address employee generated violence. There’s a …shocker.
Dennis, at the end of that report, it references VA IG report 15-01653-226. You may want to look at that. It discusses looking at program mismanagement at White City, OR.
Lately, in reading these stories of VA corruption/incompetence/criminality, I get the sense the VA wants a pat on the back for excising the mole off the patient, while they ignore the Stage III cancer underneath in the patients organs.
If I am following this correctly, a businessman with zero medical knowledge owns a storefront business that will sign off on paperwork needed for truckers health certificates. This businessman finds a chiropractor willing to sign off on examinations he is not qualified to do. The businessman somehow managed to convince VA officials that his office could conduct disability exams for veterans starting in August 2013, and the VA lets him conduct 53 exams of vets.
Before they were caught.
Who caught them? Everything here and at the DOT web site suggests this was caught by the DOT, NOT THE VA! Did the DOT investigate because a trucker got into an accident? Did the VA finally get involved when the DOT brought them information on Lindsey? How is it Lindsey can conduct VA sanctioned exams of veterans when his National Registry of Certified Medical Examiner number: 7641846230 shows he was not certified to conduct exams until September 2013? He was already conducting exams for the VA in August 2013.
And the VA says they lost $39,000. This is likely what the VA figured was the cost of 53 exams. What about the veterans who were examined by this VA sanctioned hack? Were truckers paying kickbacks for clean exams? Was somebody at VA getting a kickback for pitching exams to this business? What the hell kind of credentialing process does the VA use for those acting on their behalf? As Ben asked, what is the VA doing to notify the veterans that their C&P exam was bullshit? Or are they telling denied veterans they should appeal? Has the VA taken any steps to tell their rating officers to watch for these claims?
How the hell can VA not peel back this mole further and find the cancer underneath?
To me that would be classified as a reason for termination
And people wonder why i would rather pay for my medical then go through the VA… Thats why I got HUMANNA!!!
The odd thing in my case at VBA was they had run me through a whole battery of tests; psyhciatric, hearing, and mobility tests. I sat in front of a VBA shrink and was asked to recall disturbing images and asked some extraordinarily troubling questions of course but they seemed necessary. The hearing test was also pretty thorough and determined too as the shrink had done to be service connected.
Then they sent me to a private contracter to assess me for my spinal injuries. He spent all of about five minutes with me. They had complete scans I had paid for and brought to VA because I wanted to present my own evidence and did not trust VA to do it. A complete set of MRIs was delivered which was conclusive of course for the injury.
Here is the wierd part – the contracter asked me to bend over. Then he asked me to stand up. As I recall he asked me to stand on one foot which I don’t do well at because of severe nerve damage – I can’t feel anything in my feet except “phantom pain”.
Then the exam was over. I was rated for all three conditions with PTSD at 100%, hearing at 10%, and …….. spinal injury at 0%. Yep, I am service connected for spine injury that is rated at 0% disabling by a contractor who had me bend over, stand up, and try to balance on a foot. It did not matter to my compensation because over a 100% is moot but I was always suspicious of how the VA could pay a guy to spend five or ten minutes with me to conclude that I was disabled for spine injuries but at 0%? Those spine exams are pretty godamn lame.
Roseburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center Chief of Surgery Dinesh Ranjan has stepped down.
Here is one of Dr. Ranjan’s noted published papers. This is who Roseburg has suffered under and is now gone. How many more follow him whose published works include such titles as (copy and paste from Ranjan’s professional page)
“Ranjan, D.,Schmonsky, K.,Johnston, T.,Jeon, H.,Bouneva, I.,Erway, E. “Financial analysis of potential donor management at a medicare-approved transplant hospital..” Am. J. Transplant.”
Good golly, now VA is discovering the use of death lists to decide who does and who does not get care at Roseburg VA? WHo could have predicted that???
I only posted this Dennis, because I have been reading your posts. I do believe his resignation may be related to your case. I will leave it at that, only because I want to believe it. Maybe that “hope” you have been talking about, is finally making an appearance. Justice can be served, eventually, if you keep on keeping on. No spoilers please, not today. Let this be a good day.
Dennis,
You do know that he is talking about organ donors and how much can be made off their organs. Not monetary donors.
Truly a Ghoul from hell!!!
Or, looked at another way…financial analysis of those we should put the squeeze on to convince donating organs for a few dollars.
Its about time! Did his wife Dr. Ratnabali Ranjan the Chief of Staff at Roseberg also step-down?
Given Dinesh Ranjan first attempt to move to the U.S. as a Doctor occurred in 1983. When he claimed that he had graduated from the University of Ranchi with a Medical Bachelors degree.
Then when the fake Medical degree industry started up in 1996 in India. He and his wife Ratnabali came to the U.S. again. This time claiming they had both graduated with medical bachelors degrees from the Rajendra Medical College. This fake University was so highly rated that it was once reconized by Indian Nursing Council (INC). But they pulled their endorsement due to the lack of formal training and the high number of fake degrees coming from the University.
I note that both had also worked with the current Director of the Roseburg VAMC Douglas Paxton while he ran the VAMC in Kentucky. Nothing like bring on the incompetent help with you when you leave.
Given Dinesh Ranjan only formal training in the U.S. has been connected to harvesting organs and some of the unethical research he has been involved with. I am shock anyone would consider going to Roseburg.
Remember the research where they were calling Veterans brain dead then putting them into a state of Hypothermia for a prolonged period of time and then harvesting their kidneys for transplant. All approved because they called the Veterans Non-Human Research subjects. Dinesh was the harvester for that research.
Anybody going to the Roseburg VAMC is really taking a risk of ending up on a table with their organs harvested while they are still alive.
Really he should be arrested and prosecuted for fraud!!
1. ) When he claimed to have Graduated from the RANCHI University
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services
https://www.nebraska.gov/LISSearch/search.cgi?mode=details&lid=105444&stype=I
2.) When he returned to the U.S. and Claimed he graduated from the Rajendra Medical College
Kentucky Medical License
https://web1.ky.gov/GenSearch/LicenseList.aspx?AGY=5&FLD1=Ranjan&FLD2=&FLD3=0&FLD4=0&TYPE=
Seymore, I am hoping that this house of cards is falling due the their insolence, and refusal to follow orders from DC. Dennis has logged his complaint, and followed up on that complaint, with the reactions it has caused, and the people in DC, have been properly, pissed off.
Dennis has turned the lights on, me thinks, and the cockroaches at Roseburg VAMC, are scattering. I, for one, am GLAD to see one of our own, finally see justice served.
We NEED more stories like this.
With respect CJ it was not me. I read the letter that Colonel Scott Russi wrote and was entered into the Congressional Record about this guy. Russi was a 29 year Air Force vet surgeon who served four tours as a combat surgeon who Ranjan likely destroyed his career. This is in H8002 in October of 2017 – the congressional record;
“Because I expressed to the Eugene Hcc administrator I felt I was misled about the salary, Dr. Ranjan has gone after my clinical privileges, had them summarily dismissed and placed me at risk of being reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank (Npdb). I have been suspended from patient contact for 30 days for an investigation. If the investigation finds me deficient, I will be reported to the Npdb. If the investigation extends beyond 30 days, I will be reported to the Npdb. If I am fired or quit my job, I will be reported to the Npdb. If I am reported to the Npdb I will never work again as a surgeon.
I know it all sounds unbelievable, I think it is unbelievable as I try and wrap my head around the events of these last few days. I ask you not to send a congressional inquiry to Mr. Paxton, as that would make my life worse. What I thought would be my dream job, now has become a nightmare.
Respectfully,
SCOTT RUSSI.”
Paxton is the Director at VARHCS
Well hells bells, Dennis………….I still think your going to get your due justice.
Dennis, those dates are around the same period as the news on his bullying VA employees, and 2 months after the Douglas County veterans forum issued a vote of no confidence in him.
The Leadership page on Roseburgs VA web site is interesting.
Hey Dennis, something you should know about the Douglas County Veterans Forum: these guys are out of touch with reality about the problems with the Roseburg VA Healthcare System. I attended their December 19th meeting. One of the board members I spoke with prior to the meeting was blaming the News-Review Newspaper for Giving Paxton a bad name. At the start of the meeting a board member turned and announced to Shanon Goodwin “tell the director we (DCVF) have his back.”
Even the DCVF President Larry Hill has made statements published in the newspaper in support of Paxton.
Mike, do you know why they would have thrown Ranjan under the bus with their vote of no confidence?
Was it cover for Paxton?
I’m sure it was 91. it certainly appears that Paxton owns the DCVF Board. after reading in News Review that there were 10 VVA marchers in front of News Review paper supporting Paxton he apparently has influenced them as well by giving them an office in the Roseburg facility.
I had a chance meeting with Paxton in the bathroom prior to the DEC 12th town hall in Roseburg. I mentioned this in a letter to the editor of news review. It was published in their online letters to editor on Dec 19th. He tried his bullyshit with me. next to the words “Toxic Culture” in the dictionary they should post a picture of him.
even if he gets fired it is a win for him. he will just file an MSPB appeal drag it out for 2 years then settle with the VA, sign a non disclosure agreement, start collecting his VA Pension and go to work for some VA Contractor as a VA expert.
I don’t know that we would ever know if Dennis’ reporting resulted in JibJab stepping down. Veterans knowing that would open the floodgates.
The timing is certainly curious though.
Unless Dr. JibJab was somehow connected to the veteran shooting at White City.
Searching on Dinesh Ranjan Roseburg shows several news sites reporting he is out, including a story at nrtoday dot com about him bullying a VA employee. Unfortunately, it is behind a pay wall.
It looks like the VA couldn’t cover for him any longer.
I met Ranjan about a year ago in Brookings, OR, part of the Roseburg system. It was during one of Paxton’s community outreach sessions. I pulled Ranjan and Paxton aside and expressed my concerns (painfully diplomatic) about continuity of care regarding ongoing spine issues. The CBOC went without doctors for quite a while. Paxton pointed at Ranjan and disappeared. Ranjan wagged his jaw and said nothing. Then Paxton returned with a nursing supervisor from Coos Bay. Paxton and Ranjan boogied away. I gave her my ten minute synopsis of issues. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Let me get back to you Monday.” It took until Tuesday. By Wednesday I had a specialist appointment in Portland.
Just this week, our little CBOC got two new doctors on board. We’ll see how long they last.
I am not singing the praise of Paxton. At least he knew a nurse that could get stuff done. It took close to two years to get someone to set me up with a Rheumy. This included the torture chamber of Dr. Niu – the pain specialist. She was a specialist alright. Fucking Mengele would have been impressed with her work.
Later on during the public session I watched Ranjan get his ass chewed by a half dozen vets. Nobody was happy. Dougy and crew used to come down here about once every six weeks. I don’t think he’s made a trip for about six months… Must have his hands full.
@windguy Paxton was at the Brookings clinic last November 29th for Town Hall. I believe the next one is February 21st at the Chetco Activity Center in Brookings. I was also at the Roseburg townhall on Dec 12th and the Brookings Townhall last August 16th.
For the most part these town halls aren’t going to help fix the problems but make Paxton look good for having them. they will flat out lie to your face in front of everyone with no consequences.
They don’t really advertise these townhalls except on their website
or if you sign up to get their emails. just a couple sentences of last Novembers in the community events section of the Pilot newspaper.
I pointed this out to Shanon Goodwin, Paxton’s paid liar (public affairs officer) and suggested he put up flyers at the Brookings clinic
informing area veterans (their target audience) about the townhalls well in advance.
Paxton measures how effective he has been because less veterans are showing up.
Some of the Whistleblowers Paxton fired were out in force at the last Roseburg Town Hall.
I like hearing what other veterans have to say. I doubt Paxton will be at the next town hall and will probably send an Acting Director down to deflect veterans statements and inquiries.
The V.A. has killed and harmed more Americans than all the terrorist groups combined. It should be placed on the u
N. List of terrorist organisations. In George Washington days they hung traitors today there given performance bonus.
It helps to contact local media to let them know of these town halls. Give them a before and after interview if possible. When I did that here, not only did the local TV station do an interview, but she brought her camera crew to the town hall and stayed for the entire event.
VA people were pissed off, and it showed in the FOIA documentation I received months later.
I wonder if Paxton brought Dr. Ghoul along to Roseburg because he was competent at bringing in money (kickbacks) from creative sources and sharing.
It is probable that Ghoulish threesome were all run off together from Kentucky. They just came to roost at Roseburg because of openings that were caused by other being run off from there.
All part of the VA whack a mole game of inhumane resources.
Interesting Seymore. According to his NPI number, he is only licensed in Kentucky, but it shows his license expired in 2012. That listing also shows he is retired from practice.
His address shows Iron Mountain, MI, so the VA moved him around, but his wife shows Roseburg.
His dog will be listed certified for Hawaii VA, for retirement parachute purposes…and daily Veteran scraps from the operating room…(in a dark mood today)
I would not be shocked to see him show up as a contract C&P examiner at Roseburg since wifey is still Chief of Staff there.
I’ve said it before, ‘Nepotism is the very glue that keeps the corruption ever-ripe on the V.A. Titanic’.
Off topic:
Health Net has paid only 5 of 20 of my authorized 52 visits to a shrink. Who is pocketing the money? Why were the first 3 visits in September of 2017 omitted?
On topic:
Received a call from the Evidence Center re: my C&P TBI exam on Remand from the BVA. The lady, whose name I didn’t get, started the conversation in an accusatory tone. Not something to do with a TBI victim. We often become immediately angry. She was stating that I was refusing the exam.
What I did was write to the Evidence Center copying VARO Denver stating that a neuropsychological assessment couldn’t be done in protocol if it required a 7 hour round trip to the examiner. I suggested that the examiner be brought to the patients. After all, I wasn’t the only patient given one of those exams by the unqualified contractor who did not follow protocol in the greater area of Northern Colorado, Eastern Wyoming and the Nebraska Western Panhandle.
An examiner could travel to the Cheyenne VA, 80 miles from me, then to Torrington, WY, where I am on the day of the VA Mobile Clinic’s Visit, then to Scottsbluff, NE and then to Sidney, NE a couple of times a year on the number of trips to accomplish a protocol exam of the patients to do the exams. Probably stay overnight half way through the circle and reverse the next time enabling catching patients at different times of the day as required.
The neurologist would only have to make one trip while the testing psychologist would probably have to make about 4 or 5. I don’t remember exactly how many different sessions are required in the neuropsychological assessment.
The VA purposely hires bad VA Examiners to try to disprove Veterans disability/compensation claims. On October 22, 2015 I was sent to the VA in White City, OR for a compensation review which resulted in proposed across the board cuts to my VA Compensation.
It was a hit-job. According to the Examiner – Melba L. Thompson, she is a retired VA Nurse Practitioner who travels in a motor home with her husband, another retired VA Employee (they were in Alaska just prior to my exam) performing compensation exams for the VA as a subcontractor.
She conducted my exam by non-examination and examination that does not reflect the true physical conditions of my service connected disabilities. She did not review my military medical records or current non-VA medical records from my pain specialist as well as previous radiological studies.
The mild, moderate, and severe neural foraminal stenosis in my back was cured by her examination. MRI studies performed 2 months later showed the degenerative spine conditions were still present.
The VA’s Hearing Officer admitted she had never see such a bad examination and threw out the Melba’s (s)hit-job exam as there were plenty of prior exams and documentation to support my disability compensation. I guess I can say the system worked when the proposed cuts were dropped by a sensible hearing officer.
The problem is that this was an obvious hit-job and had i not fought it, these cuts would have gone through. I’m sure this examiner has performed exams where her findings support veterans disabilities to give her bad examinations credibility.
The question I asked in my replies to the proposed cuts was: What do you call a person who gets paid to screw someone?
I never got an answer to that question. They are out there guys.
My only suggestion Mike would be to file a complaint against her license wherever she is licensed, and send a copy to the VA.
Yours is clear evidence of what the VA allows, and with these twovtraveling to different states, who knows how many vets they have fucked.
The Major Malfunction here is the fact that the DOJ was not involved in the so called investigations. This is total fraud and should have been prosecuted as such. These people were being paid by the VA to write bogus reports so they could deny claims.
Had the DOJ been involved some people at the VA may have been nailed for conspiracy to manufacture evidence to wrongly deny Veteran’s claims.
No DOJ just the following — “DOT-OIG conducted this investigation with VA-OIG, Department of Labor (DOL)-OIG, DOL Employee Benefits Security Administration, and Department of Health and Human Services-OIG.”
As I said elsewhere Seymore, I strongly believe this was a case where the DOT investigated an accident by a trucker, and found there was no way the trucker should have been medically cleared to drive.
In the course of their investigation, I bet they found where these two were also working on behalf of the VA examining vets. I see no other way the VA would have been alerted to this, or cared.
I suspect no referral to the DOJ occurred because some didn’t want the shit underneath uncovered.
Biersmith & Lindsey…Spineless hacks signing a Chiropractor’s name no doubt for examinations for TBI’s, PTSD, heart & lung, cancers…no bones about it at all, just as the VA has no bones about hiring thugs to make Veteran Lives fucking miserable!
*Every* Vet that was examined by this spineless duo should be given their full disability without any questions nor further VA fuckery.
Oh…and banned from Federal Employment ONLY *5 YEARS* ???? Really? I’m betting had a Veteran pulled this fraud, bait & switch game to the AFGE herd, it would be a lifetime banishment from doing business with the union. Funny how that thing perspective works! Five Years??????!!!! (I think at least 20 to lifetime is more befitting…this is Federal, after all)
Both middle fingers on my hands definitely want to give the VA my bones about hiring fraudster hacks. There you go, fuck off, VA!
sorry bro, i gotta report you for that last sentence. Dialing VA police now….
Would you then at least do me one favor and utilize your middle finger to dial the bastards for one…last…laugh…?! 😀
Here’s one for you Dennis
According
to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, health
care workers are more
likely to
be victims of nonfatal assaults or violent acts in their work places than workers in most
other
industries, and many of these assaults and violent acts are perpetrated by
patients……….”THOSE EVIL PATIENTS…LOL”
Employees at VHA facilities
are not immune to the risks associated
with
caring for
violent patients, and balancing the rights and health care needs of violent and
disruptive patients with the health and safety of other patients, visitors, and staff is a
significant challenge for VHA facilitie’s leaders……..”READ THE REST OF THEIR BULLSHIT”
“https://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-17-04460-84.pdf”
With that said, then ALL VA Employees should arrive at work with a “Silence Of The Lambs”, Hannibal Lector muzzle facemasks on…all for we Veteran’s and our protection, of course. They could still shove vending machine goodies through the metal mouth hole slots. 😀 😀
Read the comments about computer based panic alarms, other panic alarms, and personal panic alarms.
There is also a comment about SSTV/CCTV.
There are all kinds of violations occurring just based on Dennis’ experience.
So where is the parity in prosecution of those who performed fraudulent medical exams of veterans with TBI claims and these hack medical procedures on veterans without a license?
Another reason that discredits OIG investigations across the government spectrum.
OIG in all government agencies has been proven to be the henchmen to perpetuate fraud in profiteering.
The Washington Examiner has been a reliable source for disclosures about this conduct, but appears to have sold out recently after discrediting OIG integrity across the board.
“https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/few-fixes-available-for-problem-igs/article/2556326”
“https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bad-things-happen-to-whistleblowers-when-watchdogs-become-attack-dogs/article/2556324”
I call bullshit on all OIG operations!