this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
358 points (97.9% liked)

News

23397 readers
3557 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Elizabeth Holmes—the disgraced and incarcerated founder of the infamous blood-testing startup Theranos—is barred from participating in federal health programs for nine decades, according to an announcement from the health department Friday.

The exclusion means that Holmes is barred from receiving payments from federal health programs for services or products, which significantly restricts her ability to work in the health care sector. It also prevents her from participating in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs. With a 90-year term, the exclusion is lifelong for Holmes, who is currently 39.

The exclusion was announced by Inspector General Christi Grimm of the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General.

Holmes is serving an 11-year, three-month sentence for defrauding investors of her blood-testing startup, Theranos, which she founded in 2003. At the time, Holmes claimed to have developed proprietary technology that could perform hundreds of medical tests using just a small drop of blood from a finger prick. The remarkable claim helped her drive the company's valuation to a stunning $9 billion in 2014, and set up lucrative partnerships. But, in reality, the technology never worked. The company collapsed in 2018, and she was convicted of fraud in 2022.

all 46 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] GilgameshCatBeard@lemmy.ca 39 points 10 months ago (3 children)

And yet…. Antivaxxers walk free.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 34 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And the Sacklers' walk free.

[–] theangryseal@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That depresses me.

I grew up in their test market. I watched every friend I had lose their parents to opioid addiction. I watched my dad go from busting his ass caring for us, camping trips, fishing trips, and hunting trips, to hanging out behind a car wash with other unemployed junkies while we cooked on a wood stove and had no electricity.

I grew up in it so it was normal. I ended up on it. You either had a social life or you didn’t. There weren’t very many sober people left by 2005.

I have seen death and chaos all of my life. My brother and I are among about 5 boys from our neighborhood left. We got sober because luckily our mother never touched the stuff and was able to be there for us. The rest in our age group are dead. Overdoses and suicides because of the addiction.

I knew nothing but violence and chaos as a kid because they lied and made junkies of entire communities.

Money is magical. As long as you pay your taxes you’ll be fine. Might have to deal with some embarrassment from time to time, you might get your name taken off of something. Other than that, luxury and protection.

The only reason Holmes is in jail is that she fucked with other people with money. She should have found a way to get rich poisoning the poors.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

The only reason Holmes is in jail is that she fucked with other people with money. She should have found a way to get rich poisoning the poors.

That's also the only reason rich people stay rich ... they own the justice system, Wall St and the banking system lock, stock and barrel.

I'm glad you made it through, and sad so many didn't.

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago

Don’t forget the ivermectin pusher with the spray tan

[–] MamboGator@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If she's still alive in 90 years, maybe we'll regret it.

[–] EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website 15 points 10 months ago

I hear she’s got a machine that can diagnose all illnesses from a single dose of blood, so she might get there

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

imagine this: It's the year 2114 and 129-year-old Elizabeth Holmes, still sprightly & deviant & sociopathic, is starting up a new medical industry and defrauding investors all over again because none of her contemporaries remember her shenanigans from 90 years prior because they weren't even born yet

[–] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

She is an absolute psychopath and should be jailed for life.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 8 points 10 months ago (4 children)

It also prevents her from participating in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs.

This is pretty unfair imo. I don't think she would going to used them, but still.

[–] prole@sh.itjust.works 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's unclear what they mean by "participate" in this context. The sentence right before that is talking about being barred from receiving payments from federal health programs, so I'm wondering if they mean "participating" on the provider's side, rather than the patient's.

Don't really care enough to look into it though.

[–] QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

From the official OIG website:

HHS-OIG has authority under 1128(a) of the Social Security Act to exclude from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other Federal health care programs individuals who have been convicted of certain crimes, including criminal offenses related to health care fraud. An exclusion is an administrative sanction that protects Federal health care programs and the people they serve by prohibiting payment for any health care item or service furnished, ordered, or prescribed by an excluded person.

https://oig.hhs.gov/newsroom/news-releases-articles/hhs-oig-issues-notice-of-exclusion-to-founder-and-ceo-of-theranos-inc/

I could see it argued both ways. It looks like this is meant to prohibit her from working with or receiving payment from any group in this sector.

From the wording it's difficult to tell if this means she also won't be able to be reimbursed for her own personal healthcare costs by any of these programs.

And if anyone really wants to get into the legalese: https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title11/1128.htm

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

It's not about fair, it's about sending the message that you don't fuck with rich people's money, especially not in a way that publically embarrasses them.

[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Imagine she's 80, broke, alone and is struggling. She's already served her time, but she's still not allowed health services? Seems kinda fucked, and it's fucked that the government has access to this slippery slope of banning convicts from health services

[–] bramblepatchmystery@slrpnk.net 8 points 10 months ago

They haven't banned her as a future recipient of health services. They just effectively banned her from ever making a dime in the entire health services industry.

[–] adrian783@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

nah fuck her

[–] Eezyville@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

If they don't want her to participate in Medicare and Medicaid then go all the way and not allow her to pay into it with her tax dollars. This seems like cruel and unusual punishment.

EDIT: It also seems arbitrary because I don't think this was part of her sentence.

[–] SpringMango7379@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

I read that as in she is unable to work or research, in the medical field, not as a patient.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago

Hard to move fast when you're blind

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (5 children)

I honestly believe that this (what she did) happens all of the time. But she was too young, too female, to get away with it.

I suspect we won’t see any more consequences in the future for most people. I’d love to be proven wrong.

[–] squirmy_wormy@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I'd bet it's more she went the silicon valley route and banked on the tech avenue/public bragging to make money. The others fly under the radar.

[–] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago

Definitely.

[–] Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But she was too young, too female, to get away with it.

The combination of these two usually makes it easier to get away with things

[–] moistclump@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago
[–] Maeve@kbin.social 5 points 10 months ago

Echoes of Martha Stewart.

[–] blanketswithsmallpox@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Too young, white, and female? You mean the least incarcerated demographic in the USA?

It's surely not because she's a fake voiced sociopath who got the hopes up of millions of patients and healthcare workers alike... falsely representing technology to defraud millions of investors...

Nope... Definitely because she's a middle aged woman lol.

[–] TserriednichThe4th@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

The only reason she even got funding was because she was the female steve jobs

[–] Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

She will still get benefits, every inmate gets benefits even though the care you receive in prison is low quality it's still cruel and unusual to not give prisoners access to at least minimal health care needs. A case like that wouldn't even make it to the supreme court. She just can't receive payments or work for a company that receives payments from those services.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It also prevents her from participating in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs.

...

Holmes is serving an 11-year, three-month sentence

So what happens if she gets sick in prison?

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

Participating as a provider, not as a patient