Fogbow

Feds shut down Missouri Christian nonprofit that was supposed to cover medical bills

Bill Lukitsch, Kevin Hardy
Mon, February 20, 2023 at 12:30 PM GMT+1

A Missouri woman’s heart attack cost her $45,000 in medical bills. A Georgia man’s kidney stone treatment carried a $67,000 tab. A California woman was treated for a stroke and got a bill for $125,000.

All were depending on St. Joseph, Missouri-based nonprofit Medical Cost Sharing Inc. to pay the bulk of those costs. They were members, some paying monthly premiums upward of $750 per month, of a so-called healthcare sharing ministry. Such groups are essentially charities in which members united by religious beliefs agree to help each other cover unexpected medical expenses.

But, according to the FBI and attorneys for the Department of Justice, they were all victims of an elaborate fraud scheme that spanned the better part of a decade, reeled in with a sales pitch targeting “like-minded Christians.” And all the while, the authorities allege, the two men who started the nonprofit were motivated by self-enrichment.

Complaints against the group have been public for years — The Star reported in August 2017 that at least eight people said they had paid into the fund without receiving a dime for their medical treatments. Several of them had made complaints with then-Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley’s office, which said it was mediating between the organization and consumers.

But now, federal officials have closed down the organization as they have gathered information they say amounts to evidence of years of widespread fraud. And they have seized assets of the founders, namely their homes, saying the properties were the fruits of a wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

Among those who submitted formal complaints was Texas pastor Jeff Gore, who paid some $4,000 in membership fees into the fund but never received compensation for care.

“It’s ridiculous. I mean, it’s been five or six years now, and the feds are just now getting involved?” he told The Star during a recent phone interview. “I was not the first complaint. The Better Business Bureau had a file opened up already. The attorney general already had a file on these people when I contacted them.”

Since its creation in 2013, Medical Cost Sharing has — by the government’s estimates, based on access to its financial records — collected roughly $7.5 million in membership fees from members around the country. But over that time, an estimated $246,000 — or 3.5% of money collected — actually went toward sharing the cost of health care bills, according to government estimates.




https://www.yahoo.com/news/feds-shut-do ... 00733.html

“It’s ridiculous. I mean, it’s been five or six years now, and the feds are just now getting involved?” [Texas pastor Jeff Gore] told The Star during a recent phone interview.

jez wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:40 am Weird. I just heard a spot on the radio either for them or a similar group. My first thought was "got to be a scam".

And this gem:

“It’s ridiculous. I mean, it’s been five or six years now, and the feds are just now getting involved?” [Texas pastor Jeff Gore] told The Star during a recent phone interview.

What's the current book that Pastor Gore also spends much of his time at the pulpit railing against Federal overreach?

Frater I*I wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:06 pm So I made a total impulse buy, I spent $500 on a 750 piece casino chip set, replicas from Casino Royale of Bond fame, face value of over 23.3 million [grew up a huge fan as a kid, when I was 7 I wanted to join the CIA and be the US version, then I found out what an agent actually did and the dream ended]

neonzx wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:22 pm
The word is OFFICER. And it is not like the movies portray. You are not going to get laid.

Frater I*I wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:39 pm

neonzx wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:22 pm
The word is OFFICER. And it is not like the movies portray. You are not going to get laid.

Field Intelligence Officer to be exact And the job is more like being a cop who develops informants...

No fast cars, no hot women, no shooting the bad guy and saving the world from SPECTER....

Frater I*I wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:39 pm

neonzx wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:22 pm
The word is OFFICER. And it is not like the movies portray. You are not going to get laid.

Field Intelligence Officer to be exact And the job is more like being a cop who develops informants...

No fast cars, no hot women, no shooting the bad guy and saving the world from SPECTER....

Phoenix520 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:12 pm Todays palate cleanser. A neighbor literally spilled bags of poppy seeds down the hill behind us. It’s a glorious sight first thing in the morning.

ED4437C3-DA30-49FE-8115-E5C2E250D207.jpeg

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:10 pm
What's the point then?

Frater I*I wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:39 pm

neonzx wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:22 pm
The word is OFFICER. And it is not like the movies portray. You are not going to get laid.

Field Intelligence Officer to be exact And the job is more like being a cop who develops informants...

Frater I*I wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:50 pm

So how long until you can harvest the opium...?

Frater I*I wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:39 pm

neonzx wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:22 pm
The word is OFFICER. And it is not like the movies portray. You are not going to get laid.

Field Intelligence Officer to be exact And the job is more like being a cop who develops informants...

No fast cars, no hot women, no shooting the bad guy and saving the world from SPECTER....

An explosion tore through an Ohio metals plant on Monday, scattering molten metal and debris that rained down on neighboring buildings, killing one person and injuring at least a dozen others, officials, witnesses and a media report said.

The blast sent smoke billowing into the sky that could be seen for miles around the damaged factory about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Cleveland.

The explosion of unknown origin at the I. Schumann & Co. metals plant in Bedford drew fire departments from throughout northeast Ohio.

Oakwood Fire Department Captain Brian DiRocco addressed the media on scene earlier on Monday, saying 13 people were taken to hospital, many of them with burn wounds, and one more was being treated on site.

At least one was in critical condition, and one was pulled from the debris, DiRocco had said. All of those injured were on site, the falling debris having spared those at neighboring businesses.

A spokeswoman for Cuyahoga County confirmed later that a 46-year-old man had died, according to the New York Times.

A man has been executed for brutally killing his daughter despite lawyers arguing he is unaware he was going to be put to death.

Benjamin Cole waited on death row for 20 years after being convicted of murder in 2002.

His lawyers filed a last minute suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in the hope of the court ordering a competency hearing.

However, the warden of Oklahoma State Penitentiary allegedly refused to initiate the hearing and instead ordered an evaluation by a state doctor in which he was found fully cooperative.

Cole was put to death via lethal injection shortly at 10.22am local time (4.22pm BST) in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Oklahoma, US, executed for a crime that shocked the nation.

He had been playing video games when he was interrupted by the cries of his nine-month old daughter Brianna Victoria Cole.

In anger he grabbed his daughter's ankles as she lay on her stomach and forced them up to her head, breaking her spine and causing her to bleed to death.

He then returned to his video game.

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:22 pm There really is no bottom.

Leading up to Fat Tuesday, many Chicago bakeries are hard at work taking orders, organizing ingredients and prepping dough for the impending rush. All this festive fuss isn’t for Mardi Gras classics like king cake—though they’ll make that, too—but for paczki.

Paczki are a traditional Polish dessert for Fat Tuesday, which has caught on in the Windy City and other cities with Polish heritage like Detroit and Buffalo to the point that some simply call the holiday “Paczki Day.”

Though they’re similar to other fried pastries, paczki aren’t just a doughnut by another name, says Dobra Bielinski, the owner of Chicago bakery Delightful Pastries. Paczki dough is richer and denser than the dough usually used for doughnuts, lending the pastry a certain plushness. A fresh-fried paczek is like a doughnut crossed with a brioche, traditionally complemented by a sweet fruit preserve filling, a very thin glaze on top and often a hint of orange peel.

Proper paczki, Bielinski says, require eggs, milk, butter, sugar and vanilla—all ingredients that stem from the religious origins of the paczki tradition. Before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, Catholic Poles celebrated Fat Thursday, a time to use up “luxurious” foods like lard and sugar before Lenten fasting began and they could no longer eat them. Since at least the Middle Ages, the paczek has provided a delicious way to do just that.

Flatpoint High wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:16 pm FphSbA_WIAAtklc.jpeg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Gold_Medal

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:39 pm https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/w ... Q5NzgzMQS2

Leading up to Fat Tuesday, many Chicago bakeries are hard at work taking orders, organizing ingredients and prepping dough for the impending rush. All this festive fuss isn’t for Mardi Gras classics like king cake—though they’ll make that, too—but for paczki.

Paczki are a traditional Polish dessert for Fat Tuesday, which has caught on in the Windy City and other cities with Polish heritage like Detroit and Buffalo to the point that some simply call the holiday “Paczki Day.”

Though they’re similar to other fried pastries, paczki aren’t just a doughnut by another name, says Dobra Bielinski, the owner of Chicago bakery Delightful Pastries. Paczki dough is richer and denser than the dough usually used for doughnuts, lending the pastry a certain plushness. A fresh-fried paczek is like a doughnut crossed with a brioche, traditionally complemented by a sweet fruit preserve filling, a very thin glaze on top and often a hint of orange peel.

Proper paczki, Bielinski says, require eggs, milk, butter, sugar and vanilla—all ingredients that stem from the religious origins of the paczki tradition. Before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, Catholic Poles celebrated Fat Thursday, a time to use up “luxurious” foods like lard and sugar before Lenten fasting began and they could no longer eat them. Since at least the Middle Ages, the paczek has provided a delicious way to do just that.

It's become pretty standard here, too. Although to me, they are just jelly doughnuts. I was out today and saw them. I might have to try them to see how similar or different they are. Pronounced push-key.

Tomorrow starts the fish fries!