Fraud Fishing, Part 5: Go early, go often when interviewing suspected fraudsters
Now that you have established your target, walk up to the door and knock.
This is the step that even some veteran investigative reporters like to avoid until the very end. How can you let a subject know that you are investigating them? Won't they start shredding records, threatening potential whistleblowers, putting cameras in the parking lot to capture you talking to patients?
They may do all those things. But here are three good reasons to talk to your subjects early.
1. The health care community, as massive as it seems, is actually quite small. Even if you have only talked to one patient who filed suit against the clinic 10 years ago and now lives in another state, word can travel fast. Patients talk to their lawyers. Lawyers talk to other lawyers. Soon, the clinic's lawyer is getting a call, and, unbeknownst to you, the countdown has begun. The clinic's administrators are thinking, "Why is this reporter calling around talking to people about me? When are they going to call me?" The longer you wait, the more suspicious they become.
2. If you are talking to other people besides the subject, you never know what a source is going to do with the information you provide. Even by doing nothing more than asking questions, you are revealing what you know. There's a great scene in HBO's The Wire where an officer, Herc, is interviewing the drug dealer Little Kevin, and he thinks he has the upper hand. Little Kevin says, "You mean Randy?" Herc says, "I'm asking you the questions, remember?" That is everything Little Kevin needs to finger Randy as a fink. I interviewed a patient once who cried repeatedly while describing the alleged horrors visited upon her by a doctor. We later found out that the patient had gone to the doctor and told him all the questions we had asked and described us as part of a conspiracy to persecute this physician.
3. You will learn information that could either take your investigation into a new and better direction or stop you from wasting your time. Just by walking into that office and sitting down with the clinic administrator or chief medical officer you are being transparent and increase the chances that the subject will keep talking to you as your reporting progresses. You also are signaling to everyone else in the office that if they have something they want to share, they should go to you. I have some of my best tips from people who heard that I had interviewed someone in their office and wanted to "set the record straight."
So go to the clinic, the hospital, the doctor's office, wherever the fraud is allegedly happening.
Talk to whoever answers or is at the front counter. Take down their name, give them your card. Make note of everything they say and do.
If they show you to the person in charge, be prepared with five of your most pressing questions because this might be the only time you get to ask them. Then, wait a couple of days.
Make yourself a sandwich and go back to the office. Play undercover cop for the day and sit outside. If it's supposed to be a busy practice, there should be a steady stream of patients. This is what tripped up Dr. Harrell Robinson and the Madre Maria Ines Teresa Health Center. If there are a lot of patients, ask them what they are going to see the doctor for. If they give you a funny look, tell them you are a health reporter and that you are interested in their opinion about the kind of care they received there.
If you happen to run into one who has had a bad experience, ask them if they have ever considered getting a copy of all their medical records. Once you have a copy of those records, you can start going to outside experts and checking the type of care that is being provided.
And once you have even a few choice facts in hand, you can consider writing your first story. Maybe all you have at this point is a he-said/she-said. "A doctor's office that is giving a free tank of gas to every new patient who registers has raised the ire of businesses and residents who say the lines around the block are disrupting the neighborhood. The doctors say they're just eager to help people find a cure for what ails them and to help them get where they want to go."
You can consider this throwing out some birdseed to see who comes chirping in your ear. Every time I have written a story about someone I suspected of bad behavior, a patient, a former employee or an investigator – even investigators for insurance companies – have contacted me to provide me with documents and details.
So, on your next lunch break, go buy yourself a banh mi sandwich and walk around a few blocks to see what suspicious activity piques your interest.
Related posts:
Fraud Fishing, Part 1: Why that corner health clinic might be flush with ill-gotten gains
Fraud Fishing, Part 2: Health scammers are hiding in plain sight
Fraud Fishing, Part 3: Following the Health Fraud Paper Trail
Fraud Fishing, Part 4: If you find one bad apple, keep climbing that tree