Latest news with #Fresno-area
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fresno hospital kickback scheme was fueled by wine, cigars and Vegas strip clubs
In the Spotlight is a Fresno Bee series that digs into the high-profile local issues that readers care most about. Story idea? Email tips@ One of the most brazen — and costliest — hospital kickback schemes involving the region's largest hospital group took place inside a nondescript, palm tree-lined medical plaza in north Fresno. That's where a healthcare technology company founded with money from Community Regional Medical Center built an exclusive wine and cigar lounge, complete with private humidor lockers for cigar storage, a state-of-the-art smoke ventilation system, and luxury wines and liquors valued at about $1 million. Only a select few executives and physicians had access to the office-turned-lounge near First Street and Alluvial Avenue, known as 'HQ2.' It was a place where doctors, healthcare executives and physician group leaders were generously rewarded for using the company's electronic health record system and fraudulently referring patients in violation of several federal laws, according to a 2019 unsealed federal whistleblower lawsuit. The alleged conspirators planned to build a grander 'ranch' luxury retreat using funds generated from the kickback scheme, according to the complaint, which was unsealed Wednesday. The scheme came to light only after a 2017 building fire at the medical plaza revealed a cache of a thousand bottles of wine,arousing suspicions from the whistleblower, an accountant, of improper spending. The U.S. Attorney's Office announced Wednesday that Community Health System and healthcare technology affiliate Physician Network Advantage Inc. (PNA) have agreed to pay $31 million to the federal government to settle allegations that it violated the False Claim Act. Community Health System (CHS), Fresno's largest healthcare group, owns downtown Fresno's Community Regional Medical Center and the Clovis Community Medical Center, as well as a health plan and physician network. Community Medical Centers (CMC) is the name of the group that includes the hospitals and clinics under the CHS umbrella. PNA is a health care technology business founded and funded by CMC to support Fresno-area physicians' adoption of the electronic health records platform used by Community, according to federal prosecutors. PNA's CEO Chris Roggenstein is a 'longtime friend' of former CHS CEO Craig Castro, according to the lawsuit. At the heart of the complaint is a scheme that PNA provided lavish benefits to doctors and physician group executives in exchange for enrolling in CMC's electronic health record technology known as 'Epic EHR.' The lawsuit also alleges physicians and medical groups who joined the network made fraudulent referrals to CMC facilities in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute. The kickback scheme involves several major players in Fresno's medical system, from hospital executives to medical records companies to some of the largest physician groups in the Central Valley. Some of the 17 luxury gifts, trips and donations listed in the lawsuit included: A trip to Paris, France for Castro and his family totaling approximately $63,000. A private plane for Timothy Joslin, former CEO of CRMC, to go to Las Vegas. Strip clubs and meals for CMC executives and physicians during a Las Vegas medical conference in January 2016. A $9,400 trip to Spain for Scott Wells, president of Santé Health and Santé Foundation, as well as Joyce Fields-Keene CEO of Central California Faculty Medical Group, or CCFMG (now known as Inspire Health Medical Group). 'The whistleblower lawsuit makes claims regarding personal choices that don't reflect our high standards as a non-profit health system, or the values of our current leadership team and board. And a number of elements in the 2019 lawsuit reflect either inaccurate or incomplete information,' said Michelle Von Tersch, senior vice president and chief of staff for CHS. In a statement, PNA said it cooperated with the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento in its review of Community Health System's electronic medical records program that began nearly 15 years ago. 'The settlement brings this matter to a conclusion without any determination or admission of legal liability for PNA,' the statement said. Thirty-five doctors were known to have received payment from CHS, according to the settlement agreement. According to the complaint, CMC embarked on the seven-year, $75 million quality improvement initiative in or around 2010 to replace their business and clinical data system with new technology — the Epic EHR system. CHS Board Chair Roger Sturdevant said that, in 2009, the federal government directed the healthcare industry to transition to electronic health records, which CHS did to provide patients with a 'robust, consistent, and secure electronic health records system.' 'However, it is clear we needed stronger oversight measures to assure that both Community and our vendor partner maintained appropriate compliance at all times.' Sturdevant told The Bee in a statement. 'While we are confident that physician referrals were driven by Community Health System's position as a leading provider of hospital-based and specialty services, we recognize that even the appearance of inappropriate incentives must be addressed.' In 2010, Physician Network Alliance, Inc. was formed with the sole purpose and business function of expanding defendant CMC's Epic EHR network of Fresno area medical practices — and to shelter the illegal kickback payments and elaborate gifts, the lawsuit says. According to the complaint, as early as 2011 CMC and PNA started giving kickbacks to Fresno-area physicians in the form of cash, expensive wine, strip-clubs, trips with private planes, and free or heavily discounted access to the Epic EHR software. PNA would bring in physicians and doctors groups into the network, all of which were subject to approval by CMC. In or around 2014 and 2015, CMC and PNA changed their building model so that PNA could retain some of the money received from the physician group, licensing fees and other monthly fees for maintenance and support of the Epic EHR system. Defendant PNA was able to retain a cash surplus from the Epic EHR client fees, so PNA began to use the excess cash for extra gifts and travel for CMC executives and CMC network physicians, such as the European and Vegas trips. PNA allegedly provided jobs to family members of CMC executives at the request of CMC. The HQ2 cigar lounge was constructed sometime after 2014 with an estimated $1.1 million of CMC funds, the complaint said. Michael Terpening, the former controller for PNA, discovered the 'illegal activity' after a fire at PNA's headquarters in 2017, in which 40 to 50 boxes of wine — totaling 1,000 bottles — were found in a storage room. When Terpening approached his boss Roggenstein about the wine, he was told it was 'leftover from the holiday party.' Terpening and his attorney could not be reached for comment. Discovery of the wine surplus led Terpening to become suspicious of other large expenditures submitted as deductible 'business expenses' for PNA, the complaint said. But, according to the complaint, Roggenstein ignored Terpening's advice to cease the illegal activity, and instead 'redoubled his criminal efforts.' Roggenstein and CMC had plans to build out the 'HQ Ranch,' a luxury retreat for CMC executives and physician practices that would include a cigar and wine lounge 'large and grander in scale than HQ2,' a skeet shooting range and a small off-road vehicle course. 'Once he realized that neither Defendant Mr. Roggenstein, Defendant PNA, nor Defendant CMC had any intention of remedying the above conduct, and in an effort to quit the illegal conspiracy, Mr. Terpening resigned from his position as a Controller for Defendant PNA,' the complaint said. The lawsuit alleged the defendants violated three federal laws through its kickback scheme: the Anti-Kickback Statute, the False Claims Act and the Stark Law. The Anti-Kickback Statute makes it a crime to knowingly and willingly offer, pay, solicit or receive any remuneration to induce a person to refer to an individual for the furnishing of any item or service covered under federal healthcare program. Claims submitted knowingly and in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute constitute a 'false or fraudulent' claim under the False Claims Act, according to the lawsuit. The Stark Law prohibits a physician or medical provider from referring Medicare patients for certain services to an entity with which a physician's immediate family has a financial relationship. The 2019 complaint lists several defendants, including: Fresno Community Hospital and Medical Center; Physician Network Advantage, Inc.; Santé Health System; Santé Health Foundation; Berj Apkarian; Craig Castro; Central California Faculty Medical Group; Timothy Joslin; Michael Muruyama; Grant Nakamura; Patrick Rafferty; Christopher Roggenstein; and Michael Synn. On Tuesday, summons were issued to the defendants. In court filings, the U.S. The Attorney's Office said it chose not to intervene at this time given the settlement with defendants Santé Health System, Inc., Santé Health Foundation, Central California Faculty Medical Group, Grant Nakamura and Michael Synn. But it has left open the possibility that it may take action pending further investigation. A scheduling conference is set for Aug. 21 at 11:30 am in the Yosemite Federal Courthouse with Magistrate Judge Helena M. Barch-Kuchta.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
More than 200 UFO sightings reported in Fresno County since 1950s. Is it a hotspot?
On a clear December night in 2011, something strange appeared in the sky above Fresno. 'I was driving home when my family and I noticed three bright orange lights shaped in a triangle,' an observer recalled in an anonymous report to the National UFO Reporting Center. As they got closer, 'another bright orange light' showed up ahead of the trio of lights, the observer wrote. 'The strange thing about it (was) they were all moving at the same time and pace. ... It was clear it wasn't a plane.' Then, they wrote, the lights 'just vanished. It was pretty cool.' As of Thursday, March 27, a total of 16,735 sightings of unidentified flying objects had been reported in California since the 1970s, according to The National UFO Reporting Center. In January, there were more than 40 UFO sightings reported in California, including one in Fresno, the National UFO Reporting Center said. More than 20 UFO sightings were reported across the state in February, according to the center, and 18 had been reported so far in March. Fresno ranked No. 6 in terms of California cities with the most UFO sightings, according to the National UFO Reporting Center, trailing San Jose and San Francisco. That should come as no surprise, given Fresno-area residents' fascination with the paranormal, otherworldly and just plain weird. After all, Fresno County has its own famous cryptid, the Fresno Nightcrawler, and was once home to one of the most haunted places in the nation, Wolfe Manor. In 1947, pilot Kenneth Arnold attracted national attention when he reported seeing nine objects, glowing bright blue-white and flying in a 'V' formation over Washington's Mount Rainier, according to the History Channel. Arnold compared the objects' motion to 'a saucer if you skip it across water,' the History Channel said. Contemporary newspaper reports misinterpreted this as meaning that the objects were shaped like saucers, the History Channel explained, 'leading to the popularization of the term 'flying saucer' as a synonym for UFO.' Since then, UFO sightings have become an American obsession, with many television shows, movies and music focusing on visitors from beyond the stars. Works inspired by extraterrestrials range from Radiohead's song 'Subterranean Homesick Alien' to 'The X Files,' the hit TV series about FBI special agents investigating the unexplained that spawned comics, novels and two films. 'People are obsessed with topics like UFOs (because) they deal with that age-old question: 'Are we alone in the universe?' ' Michael Banti, founder of Weird Fresno, told The Fresno Bee. 'If UFOs are indeed from outer space, then that question is answered and a new one is brought up. What is our purpose in the universe?' As of Thursday, March 27, a total of 189 UFO sightings had been reported in Fresno from 1953 to 2024, according to the National UFO Reporting Center. That's in addition to 52 UFO sightings in Clovis reported since 1968, National UFO Reporting Center records showed. In comparison, more than 500 UFO sightings had been reported in Los Angeles since 1942, the center said. According to the center, the earliest sighting of a UFO in Fresno was in June 1953. An unidentified person reported hearing an 'extremely loud whirring, rotating sound' accompanied by a disc-shaped UFO with 'white fluorescent-type light completely around the middle of it.' Since then, Fresno-area residents have reported at least one UFO sighting per month, according to center data, with the most sightings reported on the month of April. The discussion about UFOs has spread to social media. 'Is anyone aware of any spots in the Central Valley where UFO sightings have occurred?' a Reddit user asked in 2021. 'I've never seen anything but have friends and family who swear they have seen unusual things in the sky here,' Reddit user bravo2505 wrote. A Selma resident shared a similar experience in a comment. 'I was looking up in the sky and saw a dot of light, like an airplane but a little bigger, as bright as a star, zigzag fast in the sky, then zoom off and disappear,' Reddit user tubesocks111111 wrote in 2021. 'It was going faster then any aircraft I've ever seen fly.' Even celebrities have gotten in on the act. NBA star Shaquille O'Neal recalled spotting something strange in the sky in Madera in 1997. 'Right when we passed the fairground, I could swear I saw a flying saucer come down with all the lights and it was spinning and then it took off,' O'Neal told late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' in 2021. 'We all looked at each other and it was like, I know it was a UFO. I don't care what anybody says.' Fresno television station KMPH-TV, also known as Fox 26 News, said it caught 'unusual aerial phenomena' on camera in mid-January, when a tower camera recorded footage of a light appearing to hover over downtown Fresno. A day later, Fox 26 photojournalist Anthony Guevara said he captured footage of a similar object. Earl Grey Anderson of the Mutual UFO Network said he could 'technically call (the object) a UFO.' 'We've seen a few odd things ... strange lights over the horizon at strange times of the day,' said Keith Quattrocchi, founder of Sierra Remote Observatories, a five-acre facility for hobbyist astrophotographers and others near Auberry in eastern Fresno County. 'By definition, some of the things that we've seen are unidentified flying objects, because they're flying, and we don't know what they are,' Quattrocchi said. Sam Miller, a technician at Sierra Remote Observatories, said he first got interested in UFOs in 2021, when he saw some odd objects in the sky. Since then, Miller said, he's set up extra-sensitive cameras at his Auberry home and worked to compare findings. He also has a YouTube channel where he posts videos of unusual aerial sights. 'These strange lights look like satellites, but the frequency and orientation does not match satellite behavior,' Miller wrote in the caption for one of his videos. The U.S. Department of Defense releases a yearly report of 'unidentified anomalous phenomena.' 'Airborne unidentified anomalous phenomena continue to dominate reporting,' according to the federal agency's latest report, released in November. Of the 757 reports the agency logged from May 1, 2023, to June 1, a total of 708 involved objects in the 'air domain,' the report said, including balloons, satellites, aircraft and unmanned aircraft systems. Quattrocchi said he's received emails from people misidentifying everything from drones to planets as UFOs. When Venus is visible overhead, he said, 'They tell me they've seen an orb that's standing still in the sky. ... It's a very bright planet that is amazingly bright, and (if) it's on a really good evening, it really looks strange.' He said it's getting harder to discern if UFOs are fact or hoax as technology advances. 'Naval pilots ... have seen things that really we cannot explain in our radar systems,' Quattrochi said. 'These things were making very strange maneuvers.' People can argue, 'Well, maybe they're mistaken with what they're seeing,' ' he added, but 'our radar operators ... (are) saying these things are doing pretty much what the pilots are able to visually see. It's starting to become a little harder to discern.' Have you spotted something strange in the sky? You can report a UFO sighting through the National UFO Reporting Center's website. You'll be asked about the date and location of the sighting, as well as how long the phenomenon lasted. You'll also be asked: Where were you when you saw the unidentified flying object? On land? In a boat or aircraft? What did you see? What did the object look like? How did it behave? Where there any witnesses?
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
KB Home Announces the Grand Opening of Two New Communities in a Prime Fresno, California Location
Parkside and Edgewood at Peach Avenue offer personalized, new homes with planned family friendly on-site amenities and minutes from local schools, priced from the $390,000s. FRESNO, Calif., March 07, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KB Home (NYSE: KBH), one of the largest and most trusted homebuilders in the U.S., today announced the grand opening of Parkside and Edgewood at Peach Avenue, two new communities situated in a prime Fresno, California location. The new homes are designed for the way people live today, with popular interior features like modern kitchens overlooking large great rooms, bedroom suites with walk-in closets, and ample storage space. The one- and two-story homes at Parkside at Peach Avenue offer up to six bedrooms and three baths, while the one-story homes at Edgewood at Peach Avenue offer up to five bedrooms and three baths. Homeowners will appreciate the community's planned on-site amenities, which include a park with fitness stations, walking paths and open space as well as being minutes from local schools. What sets KB Home apart is the company's focus on building strong, personal relationships with every customer, so they have a real partner in the homebuying process. Every KB home is uniquely built for each customer, so no two KB homes are the same. Homebuyers have the ability to personalize their new home, from floor plans to exterior styles to where they live in the community. Their home comes to life in the KB Home Design Studio, a one-of-a-kind experience where customers get both expert advice and the opportunity to select from a wide range of design choices that fit their style and their budget. Reflecting the company's commitment to creating an exceptional homebuying experience, KB Home is the #1 customer-ranked national homebuilder based on homebuyer satisfaction surveys from a leading third-party review site. "We are pleased to offer Fresno-area homebuyers a wide selection of spacious one- and two-story homes in a prime location," said Oren Hershkovich, Regional General Manager for KB Home. "Families will appreciate Parkside and Edgewood at Peach Avenue's proximity to local schools as well as the planned on-site amenities, which include a park with fitness stations, walking paths and open space. At KB Home, we're here to help you achieve your dream with a personalized new home built uniquely for you and your life." Innovative design plays an essential role in every home KB builds. The company's floor plans inspire contemporary living, with a focus on roomy, light-filled spaces that have easy indoor/outdoor flow. KB homes are engineered to be highly energy and water efficient and include features that support healthier indoor environments. They are also designed to be ENERGY STAR® certified — a standard that fewer than 12% of new homes nationwide meet — offering greater comfort, well-being and utility cost savings than new homes without certification. Parkside and Edgewood at Peach Avenue are situated in a commuter-friendly location that offers homebuyers an exceptional lifestyle. The new communities are located at the corner of South Peach Avenue and East Florence Avenue, providing easy access to Highways 99 and 180 as well as downtown Fresno and Fresno Yosemite International Airport. Homeowners will appreciate the proximity to shopping, dining and family friendly venues like Sierra Vista Mall, Fresno Chaffee Zoo, Warnors Center for the Performing Arts and the historic Crest Theatre. The neighborhood is adjacent to the planned 49-acre Peach Avenue Park, which will feature two multi-use sports fields, shaded playgrounds, an outdoor fitness area, concession stand and open space. The new Peach Avenue community is also just a short drive to Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks for hiking, wilderness trails and overnight backpacking. The Parkside and Edgewood at Peach Avenue sales office and model homes are open for walk-in visits and private in-person tours by appointment. Homebuyers also have the flexibility to arrange a live video tour with a sales counselor. Pricing begins from the $390,000s. For more information on KB Home, call 888-KB-HOMES or visit About KB Home KB Home is one of the largest and most trusted homebuilders in the United States. We operate in 47 markets, have built over 680,000 quality homes in our more than 65-year history, and are honored to be the #1 customer-ranked national homebuilder based on third-party buyer surveys. What sets KB Home apart is building strong, personal relationships with every customer and creating an exceptional experience that offers our homebuyers the ability to personalize their home based on what they value at a price they can afford. As the industry leader in sustainability, KB Home has achieved one of the highest residential energy-efficiency ratings and delivered more ENERGY STAR ® certified homes than any other builder, helping to lower the total cost of homeownership. For more information, visit View source version on Contacts For Further Information: Craig LeMessurier, KB Home925-580-1583clemessurier@ Sign in to access your portfolio
