June 29, 2020

Post Office Box 1673

Kearney, Nebraska 68847

 

 

Mr. Ian DeWaal

Senior Counsel

U.S. Department of Justice

Criminal Division, Fraud Section

Washington, D.C. 20530

 

Dear Mr. DeWaal:

 

          This letter is being sent to thank you for your response dated May 22, 2019 (enclosed as Attachment #24), which was sent in response to allegations of insurance fraud by Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBS‑KS) through their third‑party payer New Directions Behavioral Health of Kansas (NDBH‑KS).  I appreciated your suggestions and followed-through with each of them. I contacted both to request assistance. Unfortunately, neither the Kansas Bar Association nor the Kansas Legal Services were able to provide services regarding the problem I presented to them.  

​

​          I also contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in July 2019 per your advice. In mid‑February 2020, I finally received a call in response. The FBI Agent explained, after reviewing my documentation, he found no evidence of insurance fraud against BCBS‑KS policyholders. Within Attachment #4, I specifically pointed out where examples of BCBS‑KS/NDBH‑KS insurance fraud could be found. So, the FBI would not initiate an investigation. Like BCBS‑KS, the FBI wants specific names of policyholders who were victimized by BCBS‑KS. As the FBI Agent knew, HIPAA prevents me from accessing any patient names (see Attachment #11). In essence, the door was shut on any FBI investigation. However, the problems remain.

 

          One thing the FBI Agent made no mention of is the illegal donations accepted by Ms. Vicki Schmidt as she campaigned for the position of State of Kansas Insurance Commissioner in 2018. Per Kansas Statute 40‑109 (see Attachment #27), Kansas Insurance Commissioners are prohibited from accepting campaign money from insurance companies. This is meant to avoid conflict‑of‑interest relationships with the insurance industry that would naturally develop out of such transactions. Ms. Schmidt disregarded Statute 104-90 and accepted quite a lot of money from the insurance industry. The conflict-of-interest relationships that came from that activity form the primary reasons Ms. Schmidt is not performing her duty to protect Kansans from being defrauded by the insurance industry. In fact, by accepting campaign donations from the insurance industry, Ms. Schmidt was ineligible for the position of Insurance Commissioner. Her name should never have been on the voting ballot.

 

Ms. Schmidt’s illicit campaign activity is available for everyone to see. Her Campaign Finance forms are on the internet. FollowTheMoney.org is one website, www.FollowTheMoney.org, where this information can be found. As shown on Attachment #47, Ms. Schmidt accepted campaign donations from a minimum of twenty-four insurance companies, including BCBS‑KS. Brad Koehn, CPA, Ms. Schmidt’s Campaign Treasurer must have left his integrity at home when he turned in Campaign Finance forms that included six hundred and eighty-seven donations left uncoded (see Attachment #48). How many of those uncoded donations are from the insurance industry? Once the insurance industry was assured of Ms. Schmidt’s allegiance, what other donations, gifts, or opportunities have they provided to her?

 

          The State of Kansas has never provided oversight on campaign donations accepted by State politicians. That is regrettable. If oversight had been available, Ms. Schmidt could have been corrected in a timely manner, giving her the opportunity to actually be an ethical Insurance Commissioner. As it is, Ms. Schmidt succumbed to the powerful vice of greed and which led to her inability to perform the duties of an effective Insurance Commissioner. Her conflict‑of‑interest relationship with the insurance industry is holding her back from investigating BCBS‑KS for the insurance fraud that has harmed her constituency.

 

          In conclusion, Mr. DeWaal, with no one in the FBI willing to investigate BCBS‑KS for the healthcare insurance fraud it has perpetrated and Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt for her transgressions, who is left to protect the American public? I am appealing to you for help, Mr. DeWaal. Please don’t turn your back on this statewide healthcare crisis in the way all others have.

 

Sincerely,

 

Kristy LaNeva LeClair

 

Kristy LaNeva LeClair, MSEd, LMHP

 

 

Enclosures: Attachment #4

Attachment #11

Attachment #24

Attachment #27

Attachment #47

 

cc:

Mr. William Barr, Attorney General

U.S. Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest

Washington, DC 20530-0001

 

Mr. Jeffrey A. Rosen

Deputy Attorney General

U.S. Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest

Washington, DC 20530-0001

 

Special Agent Timothy Langan

Federal Bureau of Investigation

1300 Summit Street

Kansas City, Missouri 64105

Mr. Christopher Wray, Director

Federal Bureau of Investigation

950 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest

Washington, DC 20530-0001