The financial news that actually matters
A physician who spent an average of 26 seconds reviewing each prescription before signing it has been sentenced to federal prison and ordered to repay more than $1.25 million to Medicare. Prosecutors said Dr. David Antonio Becerril signed off on medically unnecessary genetic tests and braces for elderly Medicare beneficiaries he never met — some…
The dashboard looked exactly like a real brokerage account. Balances updated in what appeared to be real time, positions moved with the market, and to the people logging in, their savings seemed to be growing. None of it was true. The money was never invested at all, and when investors tried to pull their funds…
Two men who ran a telemarketing operation aimed at older Medicare recipients are heading to federal prison, one of them for 17 years. Prosecutors in South Florida proved that the pair pressured elderly Medicare Advantage members into accepting braces and other equipment they neither needed nor wanted, then billed insurers roughly $35 million. The case…
A federal indictment made public this month accuses a Nevada physician of turning wound care for some of Medicare’s most fragile patients into a $95 million billing operation. Prosecutors say Stephen Dubin, 74, of Henderson, applied costly skin grafts to elderly and hospice patients who did not need them, chose the products that paid the…
Old paper savings bonds often outlive the address, filing cabinet and family member who bought them. A federal rule now gives states a structured way to receive owner information, but ownership and redemption remain federal questions rather than ordinary state unclaimed-property payouts. The rule opens records under security agreements Treasury’s SECURE 2.0 implementation report says…
The familiar $250,000 bank-insurance number is incomplete without three labels attached to it. Coverage is measured by depositor, insured institution and legal ownership category, which can protect either less or far more than a quick account-balance check suggests. The limit applies to each recognized ownership category The FDIC states that the standard maximum deposit insurance…
A Social Security overpayment notice can threaten half of a monthly retirement or disability check under the current default recovery rule. Two different requests can protect cash flow, but they answer different questions and require different evidence. A waiver disputes repayment responsibility, not merely the pace Social Security permits a waiver when the beneficiary was…
A hospital leaving a Medicare Advantage network can disrupt treatment and turn a familiar plan into a costly obstacle. Federal rules provide a possible escape route, but the right does not arise from every departure or every letter. CMS, not the hospital notice, activates the special period The Medicare Managed Care Manual authorizes a Special…
Berkshire Hathaway’s liquidity is large enough to distort ordinary comparisons, but its lesson is not that every retiree should imitate the balance sheet. The useful signal is the discipline behind a vast reserve held while its longtime leader criticized speculative behavior. The disclosed balance requires one accounting qualifier Berkshire’s first-quarter filing listed $51.5 billion of…
Forgotten checks, dormant bank balances, insurance proceeds and inactive investments have accumulated into a vast state-run custody system. Current official congressional correspondence cites an estimate of approximately $70 billion in unclaimed property held nationwide. The money remains owed to its rightful owners, but finding it safely requires official searches and documentation rather than fee-charging recovery…