Special report on reimbursement. Medicare and Medicaid false claims prosecutions: your clerk's mistake can subject you to criminal penalties!

A number of steps are available to individual and institutional providers to minimize exposure under the new wave of enforcement activity. The first is education: learn what rules apply in your setting and share that knowledge with management and line employees. Second, undertake an independent compliance review to identify and resolve any existing exposure, including voluntary disclosure to the authorities, if appropriate. Third, institute an ongoing program to communicate to all employees not only the content of applicable rules, but also the genuine commitment of management to ensure continuing compliance above other concerns.     

The brave new world of Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse enforcement: whistle-blowers, pre-filing agreements, and voluntary disclosure

Providers participating in the recent wave of mergers, acquisitions, and affiliations may have unwittingly expanded their false claims exposure because many false claim-type situations are difficult, if not impossible, to identify in pre-closing due diligence. In addition, the possibility of retrospective characterization of ordinary billing mistakes as "false claims" increasingly introduces significant uncertainty to the average provider's financial future. To date, the single most effective approach to this problem is an independent compliance review to identify and resolve any existing exposure, including voluntary disclosure if appropriate, and an ongoing compliance program to communicate to all employees not only the content of applicable rules but also the genuine commitment of management to ensure continuing compliance above other concerns.     

Public Finance and Capital Investment: A National Perspective on Colonial Dahomey

How, when and to whom should a woman marry, what constitutes marriage and what rights has a woman to influence the selection of her spouse? These and other questions were subjects of intense contestation between young men and women and their parents, on one hand, and, on the other, between commoners and members of the traditional elite in the Western Igbo district of Igbuzo in Southern Nigeria during the early twentieth century. Disputes over marriage rites centred on the politics of isinmo or the shaving of a woman's head. Isinmo gave the “barber” exclusive and inalienable rights to the woman. Yet, in what amounted to reversal of tradition, women seeking to end or reduce parental and patriarchal control appropriated some the rituals of isinmo to contest its use and efficacy in the hands of its erstwhile beneficiaries.     

‘He's snooty ‘im’: exploring ‘white working class’ political disengagement

Using a small pilot qualitative study conducted in the North of England prior to the 2010 general election, we seek to understand why our respondents might feel actively disengaged from mainstream politics. It is argued that one major reason is because politicians are seen as lacking understanding of the local contexts in which these low-wage workers live. The gulf between represented and representative is widened if politicians fail to communicate in a ‘down to earth’ way. This indicates that social inequality between represented and representative is a factor in disengagement, but that such disengagement is not the result of apathy on the part of citizens. Further research is required, but our study suggests that if politicians fail to recognise their privilege and politics fails to address economic disadvantage across ethnic groups then disengagement from mainstream politics is likely to worsen.     

Living Together Unmarried in the United States: Demographic Perspectives and Implications for Family Policy

This paper synthesizes research on the demographic correlates and consequences of unmarried, heterosexual cohabitation in the United States. First, we place cohabitation in the context of recent demographic trends in union formation and dissolution. Second, we consider the implications of cohabitation for child well-being. Third, we review population subgroup variation in the role of cohabitation in family patterns, focusing on social class and race and ethnicity. Finally, we discuss how and why unmarried cohabitation is implicated in recent dialogues about family policy.