Q&A with  Blythe Bernhard and Jeremy Kohler: Uncovering a teen’s death and a troubled health system

When a troubled teen whose parents have left her in the care of the foster system dies, she could easily be forgotten, a bureaucratic footnote in some annual report. Blythe Bernhard and Jeremy Kohler at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch have made certain that Alexis Evette Richie will be a name that resonates with federal regulators, hospital administrators and patient advocates for years to come.

The Kansas Board of Healing Arts has an interesting approach to public disclosure. The board tells you what, if anything, it did to discipline a doctor, but it refuses to tell you why.

How a doctor harmed patients, what types of drugs a doctor may have been taking while performing surgeries, whether a doctor had a long history of dangerous practices. These are considered secrets best kept among the professionals.

What sort of paper trail might a fraudster leave?

Because the key to a fraudster’s scheme is the appearance of legitimacy, you need to start with the agencies that confer legitimacy on most businesses.

Let’s start with the tax rolls. These insurance fraud cases often end up in charges that hinge on unpaid income tax. Remember Al Capone?

Here’s one recent example from an FBI press release:

Methamphetamine has proven to be so addictive and so socially destructive that, like cocaine in the 1980s, it is now the Big Bad Drug. It has been the subject of countless news stories, a critically acclaimed television series, a best-selling book and spooky folk art billboards.

Where does one go to find an insurance fraudster?

As with most stories, you need to think about the people connected to, or affected by, your subject, and the paper trail your subject may have left behind. I’ll start with the people and talk about the paper trail in later posts.