But thanks in part to our first guest, they didnt get away with it.
She was a seamstress as well.
But her primary job function was in sales.
[00:01:41] Bob: Thats Judy Venable-Grogan, who lives in Tyler, Texas.
about 90 minutes east of Dallas.
I mean there’s good ones, so, but I had wanted to do this for my mother.
But when she slipped and fell and hit her head, well that caused a concussion.
She recovered, but she had memory issues, making a complicated situation even harder.
[00:02:26] Judy Venable: Mother was very confused.
I could have been her sister.
I was never her daughter because she was trapped somewhere in the ’40s.
And that was during the war.
And their dementia will become worse.
And she would go into a panic because her children weren’t home from the school.
And at first, I would explain to her, “Well Mom, I’m right here.”
Your children will be here shortly."
And then she would be fine.
I would take a stab at figure out where she was, and, and what timeframe.
[00:04:04] Bob: I have to tell you though, that sounds so loving on your part.
[00:04:09] Judy Venable: I love my mother very, very much.
[00:04:14] Bob: Judy had help from a hospice home care aide.
Someone would come often to help bathe and feed her mom.
But she didnt think the hospice company was responsive enough.
It seemed reluctant to order new tests for mom, for example.
It was called Novus Health Services.
After speaking with the firm, she decides to switch.
[00:04:45] Judy Venable: They were very willing to talk about any test.
Suddenly, Novus becomes less cooperative, too.
Nurses are reluctant to order new tests, or to reconsider some medications.
And mom, she seems to be getting worse.
Shes struggling with digestive issues, her cognitive decline seems to be accelerating.
And meanwhile, Judy finds it hard to connect with a doctor, even on the phone.
And the hospice company was making it my fault.
What would they do?
[00:05:57] Judy Venable: I was told that I did not want my mother to die.
But they accused me of that in a way that it was a negative.
That I was resisting the dying process.
I, I was too overprotective.
[00:06:29] Bob: And they were accusing you of clinging too much to your mom?
[00:06:31] Judy Venable: Right, the, example.
The chaplain said, “Judy, we don’t think that you want your mother to go.
And Novus…well, they even question that.
I was told by the chaplain that that was over the top, those were her exact words.
[00:07:31] Bob: As time progresses, Novus caregivers even ask Judy to stop basic treatments.
She brought it up again, “Have you thought about that more?”
[00:08:24] Bob: Meanwhile there is no doctor to talk to.
Hospice care does include regular meetings with a doctor, to discuss major treatment decisions.
But Novus just wont set up an appointment with a doctor.
Judy starts to think something is really, really wrong.
[00:08:41] Judy Venable: I couldn’t put my finger on it.
And it was when there was this big pushback about getting tests for Mother.
Every time we would ask for a doctor, they said they would fax him.
His name between my sister and I was Dr. Fax.
[00:09:04] Bob: There was more than Dr. Fax.
Novus just started pushing back on everything.
[00:09:11] Judy Venable: The pushback came on an aide being with Mother all the time.
Pushback came back on getting physical therapy.
So it was all around expense for them.
And then normally the patient just lets go and, and passes away.
And the company leans pretty hard into this idea of about ceasing some medical treatments.
[00:10:33] Judy Venable: Well that wasn’t the answer they wanted.
And at that point Joyce and I made the decision to change hospice companies, thank God.
I knew something was wrong.
[00:10:40] Bob: Judy knows somethings wrong.
For starters, the doctor says, her mom needs to get weaned off the opioids shes been taking.
[00:11:08] Bob: They basically turned your mom into a drug addict, my God.
[00:11:11] Judy Venable: Exactly
[00:11:12] Bob: Oh my God.
And, Mother was pretty much in almost a comatose state at this point.
[00:11:42] Bob: Thank God you changed providers.
[00:11:44] Bob: And theres more.
And it was constant.
And they said it was because I was giving her too much of the nutritional drink called Boost.
And I said, “Sure.”
Mother had laid in that bed with constant diarrhea, and they wouldn’t do any kind of testing.
It wasn’t the Boost.
It was gnawing at her.
So, eventually, she figures out who to complain to.
She sends a letter to Social Security, to Medicare, complaining about her moms treatment.
[00:13:13] Judy Venable: It kept bugging me.
[00:13:34] Tom Cook: My name is Special Agent Thomas Cook.
I’m an FBI Special Agent assigned to the Dallas Division.
[00:13:40] Bob: And what does your work generally involve?
At that point, the investigator at the time kind of incorporated some questions about this hospice company.
[00:14:46] Bob: This hospice company, Novus.
And the answers are alarming.
So to verify this employees these dramatic claimsthey go to Quantico.
He had worked for another hospice in North Texas as an administrator and grown the company quite quickly.
And hes a compulsive texter.
Because their phone would ring and ding all day, every day, at all hours of the night.
He was quite verbally abusive via text message.
He was a perfectionist.
And wanted to double-check he covered all of his tracks.
He would gamble 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars on sports in a weekend.
[00:19:12] Bob: But even worse than the barrage of text messages, the gambling thugs.
They would overprescribe morphine, for example.
And, he has expressed frustration when that doesnt work.
After another patient died, he texted a nurse, nice work, according to legal documents.
The answer lies in the complicated formula that Medicare uses to compensative health care providers for hospice care.
Now Medicare doesn’t expect that the doctors have a crystal ball or that they always get it right.
There is a lot of flexibility and trust in this, in this system.
So, that six-month period is, is important from a general point.
So once the doctor has made that determination, the patient is eligible and signed up for hospice care.
[00:21:58] Bob: So Novus wants as many hospice patients as it can get.
But things would become more complicated when patients start living past that 6 month point.
So to help keep the average time low that aggregate cap Novus aggressively recruited new hospice patients.
And so he would rely on the word of mouth of patients.
This is a new kind of hospice, and we’ll get you, we’ll cover your medication.
Well, hospice is for folks who have a terminal illness.
It’s, there, there’s no way around that.
[00:23:05] Bob: In other words, Novus recruits patients who dont need hospice care.
And Dr. Gibbs says he could use some cash, could Brad throw in a few more?
And then Brad says, “Well,” first he says, “Are you kidding?”
[00:24:16] Tom Cook: Yes.
But Judy has no idea yet just how bad things were at Novus and for her mom.
But when FBI investigators reaches out to Judy the horrible truth starts to emerge.
[00:24:37] Judy Venable: It was so hard, Bob.
I asked the FBI if Mother was one of those.
Those are my Mother’s initials.
[00:25:13] Bob: Oh my God.
[00:25:15] Judy Venable: Yeah.
[00:25:16] Bob: Oh my God.
[00:25:19] Judy Venable: And I can remember when that happened.
Well she didn’t die.
She’s going to be okay.”
So…
[00:25:56] Bob: Oh my God.
[00:26:04] Judys mom, and many other Novus patients, were supposed to die.
And what happens to Judys mom?
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Rather than providing comfort, Novus staff push back on even the most basic care requests.
What he and his colleagues uncover is even worse than they imagined.
But the other begins to have doubts.
