Jack Carrel [ 1 h 03 min 02 s | 28.86 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (787)

Even the mainstream AIDS media are abuzz over this one. Three former employees of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) are acting under the federal Whistleblower Act to sue this largest U.S. AIDS medical services provider. At issue is an alleged kickback scheme for patient referrals estimated at $20 million per year.

AHF president Michael Weinstein has answered with the everybody-does-it defense. The rest of the AIDS industry is calling for his head, as it has for the past half-year over his criticism of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). Weinsten has further self-nominated himself as “czar” to police safe sex in the porn industry.

“It’s like everybody’s singing ‘AIDS Has a Whorehouse in It,’” says How Positive Are You co-host Elizabeth Ely, “to cover up that the whole thing is a whorehouse.”

The kickbacks turn out to be referral bonuses to employees and patients. These are gifts of $50, $100 or a fast-food meal for referring Medicare-, Medicaid- and ADAP-qualifying patients testing positive in the back of AHF’s “Out of the Closet” thrift stores to its own treatment centers and in-house pharmacies.

The government may have encouraged creative incentives through its mandate to identify all the estimated unknown “HIV positives” out there and “link” them to treatment. An organization’s funding might even depend on meeting certain “objectives.” However, federal anti-kickback statutes expressly forbid referring patients in-house, says plaintiffs’/relators’ attorney James P. Gitkin.  (Beth asks: Might it encourage unsavory cooperation on outside referrals as well?)

We’re wondering how many people might have been labeled positive because AHF employees wanted those prizes. Who trusts their doctor, only to find out they made extra money for encouraging early treatment with drugs? If truly everybody does this, is the damage so widespread that the lawsuits and mistrust could end the AIDS nonprofit sector?

Listen as Beth interviews plaintiff/relator Jack Carrel and attorney Gitkin. Tell us how much you still trust the nice folks at your local AIDS nonprofit. How badly do you need those cute used designer shoes from an AIDS organization’s thrift shop if the money goes toward such practices?