When You're Expecting Something Else (22 page)

The phone rang while he was wondering what Stern would say about this whole crazy mess. Expecting to hear the lawyer’s husky greeting, he was surprised instead to hear Jared’s shaky voice.

“Oh, thank God, I got hold of you, Bradley. Look, you’ve got to help me. These caregivers are crazy. I’m not sure what they want, but they’re holding me hostage in my own home. You’ve got to get rid of them. Can you get me out of this mess? Help me, Bradley. Oh, please God, help me!”

“Jared! Listen, are you okay? What the hell’s going on? Look, I’m working on it. Listen, I’m getting you out of there. Maggie’s on with me. I’ve got a call in to legal counsel. Do you know who they are, the caregivers?”

“All I know is they’re involved with San Francisco Geriatric Center with Pappy. I’m worried about Pappy now, too. Look I don’t have my own phone. I promised the physical therapist two hundred dollars cash to sneak me his phone. Can you bring some cash for him and sneak a phone in to me? I don’t even know how I’ll hide it from Marta. She’ll stick me with drugs if she catches on. I’d better go before she comes in and finds me talking. I pretend to be under when she’s around just to keep her from sticking me more than I already am. Someone named Julius Fenway is posing as my doctor. I have to go now. Please hurry! Help me, Brad.”

Bradley hung up his phone and immediately it rang again, this time Jeff Sterns. He quickly briefed him.

“I’ll do some investigating and get back to you. If Fenway’s not a doctor the state medical board will know. I’ll also check on the legal paper trail for Margaret Wise. We’ve got multiples of Jared’s legal documentation on file here. I’ll talk with Palo Alto Police Dept. Worse case scenario, you can always have Jared fake a medical crisis and call 911 to remove him to the hospital. Once he’s in neutral territory you’ll have the upper hand. I didn’t tell you to do that, by the way. We can fight the legal battle once Jared’s out of the crossfire. I’ll get a court order to block the caregivers’ involvement until we get to the bottom of it. Number one, we need Jared clear headed. Hang in there and I’ll get back to you within the hour.” He talked so fast his words ran together.

Bradley sighed with relief as he placed a call to Maggie in Boston informing her of the latest. “I’ll call Mark Matthews next to prepare him for Jared’s admit to Pacific West Hospital. You should have heard him, Maggie. His voice was shaking. He recognizes the employees from San Francisco Geriatric Center where Pappy is a resident. Says he’s worried about Pappy now, too.”

“I’ll catch the next flight to San Jose. I’ll call you when I get there,” Maggie said breathlessly. “Thank you, Bradley.”
 

*****

Stan’s journalistic report was almost finished. It was all coming together nicely. He’d been writing around the clock, putting together all the bits and pieces he knew about Medicare fraud, double billing, and how the government was being bilked out of millions of dollars each year. He had case studies and government reports to back his figures. Over the past several months, he’d met with FBI officials and talked with other reporting agencies. Now, in addition to nursing homes, he had case scenarios for how home healthcare agencies fit into the picture, and also how individual consumers of healthcare services were being victimized. It was to epidemic proportions, and often propagated by foreign interests, such as the computer hacker gangs from eastern block countries.

He’d wanted to discuss his findings with Connie, but she’d been dead tired when he’d called. While disappointed, her preoccupation with sleep kept him from being led into distraction. Instead he was at full throttle, pounding on his keyboard.

At first glance he’d found nothing unusual at San Francisco Geriatric Center, but his instinct told him to dig deeper and look harder. That’s when he’d noticed that the Medicare paperwork provided him by Kaitleen Logan looked strangely suspicious. When compared with official government paperwork, the document codes were different. He’d also noticed that two forms were actually attached by a thread, which meant they would run through the official government-sorting machine and separate into two distinctly different piles, thus separate out into two different bills. While the usual DRGs (diagnostic related gradients) allowed billing for one diagnosis, this paperwork slipped through the checkpoint, and allowed two, ensuring double payments. It was a sophisticated ploy designed to slip through the cracks.
 

When he discovered this cleverness, Stan had immediately taken his finding to his friend, Special Agent John Rusk, in the bureau. Rusk jumped to action and now preparation for the bust was all but done. Rusk promised Stan a front row seat for the action. As an embedded reporter, the exclusive story was his. Now, after twenty-four hours of compiling notes and putting months’ worth of data together, the story was all but written. The upcoming bust at San Francisco Geriatric Center was to be synchronized with a statewide sweep. When the shit hit the fan, Stan would be in the ready. All he had to add were the finishing paragraphs. Throw in a few photos and a few quotes, and his front- page byline would be a golden path paving the way for his book. He’d put his heart and soul into writing it, knowing it had all the earmarks of a bestseller. He’d even been able to implicate the caregivers at Jared Wise’s Palo Alto home because of their connection to San Francisco Geriatric Center. As much as anything, he wanted to give Connie Harrison the peace of mind she deserved.

Chapter Twenty-four

Morning comes all too soon. These twelve-hour shifts are going to take some getting used to. I’m going through the morning ritual with Isabella, telling her that her bowls are full for the day and that I’d be home again, usual time tonight, when my phone rings. It’s Maggie saying she’s in Palo Alto again and she has a plan to save Jared. How I wish I had time to talk with her, but if I don’t hustle, I’ll be late for my second day of work. Hospital routines wait for no one.

I don’t like to talk while I drive, so I brush her off. Besides, she wears on me, and Jared’s mystery isn’t really my business any more, or so said the cops. I try to stifle my curiosity so I can stay out of trouble. “I’ll call you back as soon as I possibly can, but it might not be for another day or two,” I explain. If I’m as dead tired tonight as I was last night, I might not stay awake long enough to place any calls. Then I remember briefly talking to Stan last night. I wonder what we said.

Traffic is about the same on Highway 280. I suspect it’s typical for the morning commute. Despite the congestion, I enjoy the scenic drive. The hills above Palo Alto are already beginning to turn from verdant shades to golden as the rainy winter months have passed into the seasonal warmth and dryness of late spring. I’m waking up and jazzed about my day on Medical-Five. I’ll shadow Regina again this morning. In the afternoon I’ll be in a classroom with other new hires learning the ins and outs of the computer system.

When I arrive, Regina is already in the report room. I quickly punch my time card and hurry to join her. I marvel again at how much I love the morning hospital routines when patients are waking up and pushing the call bells for the nursing assistants to come. The air conditioner hums, and the off going nurses are rushing to finish their assignments. Food smells waft up through the ventilation system. The smells of bacon, maple syrup and coffee mingle together. I can already tell this is going to be another fast paced day because my feet want to run.

We have seven patients again, yesterday’s two discharges replaced by two new admissions. So far, our assignment feels neat and tidy. I notice Regina’s tired eyes when she smiles at me. “Didn’t sleep well last night,” she tells me, though she doesn’t say why.

Report goes by quickly. Regina grabs one of the diabetic kits and hands me a second one. “Do you feel ready to do the finger stick in 506 while I do the one in 510?” she asks me. Oh yes, I’m so ready to be a nurse again. I don’t say it aloud, I just nod and reach for the kit. I’m up and running, and it feel so good!

The morning flies by just like yesterday. Before I know it, I’m in the afternoon computer class. I catch on quickly. Inside of three hours, I’m assigned my own code numbers and handed my own mini-computer to use. When I rejoin Regina it’s almost time for dinner trays to come up.

“We have a new admission coming,” she says. “Can you take telephone report while I do the dressing change on the patient in room 512?”

I pick up the telephone in the Nurses Station. “Connie Harrison, I’ll take report. Patient’s name please?”

I’m speechless when Dr. Mark Matthews responds. “It’s Jared Wise,” he says.

*****

Bradley Lawton waited until Maggie had called from her hotel room in Palo Alto. By then he had all the information he needed to act on his plan. By then Jeff Sterns had done some investigating and learned that Dr. Julius Fenway was not licensed with the state of California. Further investigation found that he was on the FBI watch list on several counts, stretching from immigration violations and drug trafficking to fraud. It gave Sterns the grounds to request a Stop Treatment Order from a judge, as well as an Order of Protection for Jared. If Jared remained lucid enough to give his statement, they’d have everything they’d need to put both Julius Fenway and Marta Lewski away for a long, long time.

Bradley worried about Jared’s physical health, having been denied medical care since his discharge from Pacific West. Armed with this new information, it had been an easy task to get a police escort into Jared’s home for himself, Maggie, and ambulance personnel for Jared’s transport. Jeff Sterns had also given the San Jose Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation a heads up about Julius Fenway’s most recent activities. The FBI was following up with PAPD.

It had been a full entourage that arrived at Jared’s house. Maggie and Bradley rang the doorbell with four uniformed police officers standing alongside them. Pac-West Ambulance sat at the curbside and unloaded a gurney, along with portable oxygen and other medical supplies. The three paramedics joined the others at the door. Dr. Mark Matthews went on ahead to Pacific West Hospital Emergency Room where he’d agreed to meet the ambulance and examine Jared.

Marta had answered the door. When she saw the crowd, her face turned sheet white, so white that her cornflower blue eyes seemed to pop out of their eye sockets. “Step outside,” an officer instructed her. He told her the charges as he pulled her hands together behind her back and clicked handcuffs. “You have a right to an attorney,” he said, stating her Miranda rights.