C M Y
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DAILY COMMERCIAL
Celebrities |
Friday, July 27, 2012
BIRTHDAYS: TV producer Norman Lear is 90. Actor Jerry Van Dyke is 81. Sportscaster
Irv Cross is 73. Actor John Pleshette is 70. Singer Bobbie Gentry is 68. Actress-director Betty
Thomas is 64. Olympic gold medal figure skater Peggy Fleming is 64. Singer Maureen
McGovern is 63. Actress Janet Eilber is 61. Rock musician Tris Imboden (Chicago) is 61.
FLORIDA
LOTTERY
THURSDAY
CHIEF
CONTINUED FROM A1
“Former police officers
and their supporters have
appeared at recent council
meetings
complaining
about the police department management, with
some claiming they were
unjustly terminated,” a
press
release
from
Saunders’ office said. “City
Manager Saunders supports the independent
investigation and believes it
will provide facts and truth
regarding the allegations
and help restore confidence
in the department.”
At a city council meeting
this week, board members
Ray Goodgame and Rick
Van Wagner both said they
wanted an outside investigation. Councilman Keith
Mullins also said he hoped
any probe would put an
end to the former officers’
accusations.
Already, these accusations have prompted investigations of one officer who
they say falsified information on his resume and
application, and of another
whose investigation they
say was conducted inaccurately after he was alleged to
have had an inappropriate
relationship with a 17-yearold girl in the Police
HABITAT
CONTINUED FROM A1
“With the atmosphere
and climate the way it is
now with our veterans, they
need our support and they
need resource assistance,”
Adcock said. “We want to
address the housing the
needs and provide housing
solutions for returning veterans or disabled veterans.”
Before the transition
house is built, Habitat plans
to construct a house in
Wildwood for a disabled,
decorated Vietnam War veteran who was injured in
action.
“We went out to his
home and we saw that he
lived in absolute atrocious
housing conditions,”
Explorers Program in 2011.
Both officers remain on the
police force.
Additionally, two other
officers were recently fired,
yet one only reprimanded,
for an off-duty prank they
pulled on a fellow officer
that involved a high-speed
chase while she was on
duty.
Kim Meintzchel, one of
the six officers who complained to FDLE and who
was fired from the department for supposed failure
to comply with proper
orders and untruthfulness,
said there are many more
examples of corruption and
favoritism within the
department.
She said it has to do with
poor and corrupt leadership.
“I’m glad to hear the city
manager has recommended an investigation, but I
hope that the city council
will have a say on who the
third party to be conducting
it will be so that if can be
done in the fairest way possible,” Meintzchel said.
“Hopefully it’s someone out
of area who will be truly
unbiased and does not
know any of the officers.
“We need somebody who
is gonna be fair and professional and who will be sure
to do the right thing for the
sake of uncovering truths
that need to be uncovered.”
Adcock said. “For somebody who has served our
country, he should not have
to live in that kind of substandard housing.”
Habitat plans to raise the
roof on the veteran’s house
on Nov. 11, prior to the
major fundraiser.
And there are other
work-in-progress Habitat
house. Some 50 volunteers
are expected to show up
today on a Habitat build at
8 Buford St., Umatilla,
while volunteers in South
Lake have been busy the
past few weeks at 802
Anderson St., Mascotte.
Pastor Zach Zehnder, of
the Cross East Lake, said
his church plans to return
in August to do more work
at the Mascotte house. He
also has found the experi-
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Meintzchel also called
Saunders’ and Graham’s
retirement announcements
“a start,” but is still not satisfied because they will still be
associated with decisions
within the city until their
scheduled departures.
She said she’d like to see
them both terminated
immediately, along with
Johnson, who she says is
also part of the problem at
the Police Department.
In light of the events of
the last two weeks,
Meintzchel said she feels
the city is on “the right
track.”
“We have some council
members that seem genuinely interested in doing
things that are in the best
interest of the citizens of
Clermont. That the city
manager and police chief
are leaving also leaves room
for better leadership and
new blood in some of the
higher leadership positions
and that’s good too,” she
said.
Mullins said he is saddened by how vicious the
entire matter has turned.
City officials said a
meeting with the city
council will be scheduled
“within the next few days”
to discuss the scope of the
investigation and who will
conduct it.
ence fulfilling.
I’m not a construction
or handyman-kind of
person by any means,”
Zehnder said, adding
he’s learning a few new
skills along the way.
“But, just the ability to
get out and know that
you’re making a difference is really important.
We’re doing this
because we like it and
it’s pretty fun. I would
encourage anybody —
local organizations,
churches, groups,
schools — to get
involved with Habitat
and help people.”
On any given day,
Habitat said it can use 10
volunteers. Among the
jobs: Office volunteers to
work at Habitat’s new
Villages location, 5
LaGrande Blvd., next to
El Ranchito Restaurant;
construction work with a
hammer, volunteers who
provide water t the crew
or bring snacks, those
who pick up the loose
nails and bits of lumber.
At the thrift store, volunteers can help sort and
price donated items,
serve as cashiers, customer assistants and display designers. To learn
more, call Mary Lou
Mills, community relations, at 352-483-0434
ext. 17 or 352-552-2417.
FRAUD
CONTINUED FROM A1
data will take longer because difficult
legal and technical issues have to be
worked out.
The agreement is unusual because it
brings together longtime foes to tackle
a common problem. Insurers are
grudgingly carrying out the many
requirements of President Barack
Obama’s health care overhaul law, even
as they continue lobbying to roll back
some of its provisions, such as new
taxes on the industry and cuts to private plans offered through Medicare.
Obama continues to rail against industry “abuses.”
Industry leaders stressed that combating fraud is in everyone’s interests.
“What’s in it for us is that if you have
more data, you are going to be able to
recognize aberrant patterns more reliably,” said Dr. Richard Migliori, an executive vice president of UnitedHealth
Group, the nation’s largest insurer.
“These perpetrators are moving around
from one place to another. You are
going to have more eyes on them and
they are going to feel surrounded.
Attorney General Eric Holder, who
took part in the announcement, said
insurers and government will “come
together as never before to share information while protecting patient confidentiality.”
Fraud is estimated to cost Medicare
about $60 billion a year, and the Obama
administration has beefed up the government’s efforts to stop it, bringing in
record settlements with drug companies for marketing violations as well as
using new powers in the health care law
to pursue low-level fraudsters with
greater zeal.
Yet, although Medicare is becoming a
harder target, it’s too early to say if the
tide has turned.
Some anti-fraud efforts launched
with great fanfare have not delivered
convincing results. For example, in the
summer of 2011 Medicare unveiled a
$77-million computer system designed
to head off fraud before it happened. By
last Christmas, it had stopped just one
suspicious payment from going out, for
$7,591.
Likewise, the new public-private collaboration could face problems. Privacy
advocates may object to extensive
scrutiny of claims data, and doctors
have traditionally pushed back against
routine computerized monitoring of
their practice patterns. Dr. Jeremy
Lazarus, president of the American
Medical Association, said doctors must
be involved in any analysis of billings.
Many details of the new effort are still
unclear, but the possibilities include
sharing information on new fraud
schemes as they pop up, using claims
data to catch bogus payments, and
computer analysis to spot emerging
patterns of fraud.
White House officials said a “trusted
third party” would comb through data
from Medicare, Medicaid and private
health plans and turn questionable
billing over to insurers or government
investigators. That third party organization has yet to be selected.
Fraudsters often simultaneously target both government programs and private insurance plans. Separately, such
claims might not raise suspicions, but
taken together they could raise a red
flag, such as when a doctor bills for
more than 24 hours in a day.
An industry official familiar with the
discussions said the partnership will
involve sharing of such information as
billing codes associated with fraud for
different insurers. Extensive sharing of
claims data will take longer to work out
because of privacy and legal concerns.
The official declined to be identified
because he was not authorized to discuss the subject in public.
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BABY
CONTINUED FROM A1
Clermont.
But deputies were called
back to the store several
hours later after a store
clerk found a pink and
black backpack near where
Combs’ vehicle had been
sitting. Detective N. Jones
said the backpack smelled
like meth and they found
various chemicals used to
cook the drug, including
cold medicine, a pill
grinder and acid.
Jones and the narcotics
units went to the South Lake
Hospital late Wednesday
afternoon to arrest Combs
as she was being released,
where a search of her items
there found devices commonly used to smoke meth.
Deputies said Combs’
admitted the backpack was
hers. He said she may have
been trying to discard the
backpack during labor,
knowing that officers were
on their way.
The arrest affidavit adds
she also tested positive for
drugs. The Department of
Children and Families took
her baby away from her and
she was arrested on charges
of possession of chemicals
to produce methamphetamine and possession of drug
paraphernalia.
Jones said he believes DCF
was already prepared to take
the child away before the
charges were filed.
Combs remained in the
Lake County jail late
Thursday in lieu of $5,500
bail.