Joe Ehman, a therapist in Denver, Colorado who has personally dealt with more than 200 cases of brain injury, says, "A lot of the so-called rehab can really be done on an outpatient basis and, what my experience has been, people who have survived injury -- and survived rehab -- basically all said the same thing: A lot of what they learned in rehab they really don't use in the real world."
Ehman says that the daily rates charged by facilities depend on the insurance policy of the patient -- ensuring that profits are put before patients.
"When I am at this hospital for doing the re-entry program, they push the people to come back in six months to a year for re-evaluation, to see if any functioning has changed with bladder, bowels, muscles, nerves, and that sort of thing and maybe there's a need for it, but the first question they ask the people is 'What is your insurance company?' It's just a money maker. This is right now, this is today."
In Texas, CCHR is working with state senator Michael Moncrief to craft legislation which will set new, humane standards for brain injury rehabilitation. And north of the border, government officials are finally at the end of their rope, taking the extraordinary step of filing litigation in the United States to recover misappropriated funds. On April 6, Ontario Health Minister Elizabeth Witmer announced that the province had filed suit in Madison, Wisconsin against the California-based Tenet Healthcare and its former subsidiary, National Medical Enterprises, seeking $175 million in damages. One U.S. legal analyst noted that such a suit shows extraordinary concern. "This looks like a strong case," he said, "but lawsuits like these are generally seen as too great a risk and are rarely brought -- a foreign government suing major corporations in another country. It suggests a strong commitment from the Canadians." Such commitment from federal U.S. authorities is overdue.
It is long past time for the U.S. Department of Justice to launch a full investigation into those who have created or allowed a brain injury "system" which is merely a cloak for widespread fraud and abuse.
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