Medicare: What More Could I Do? -- Scream From the Rooftops?

February 17, 1998
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW
#136
Washington, DC 20008-4530

Maryland Medicare
1946 Greenspring Drive
Timonium, MD 21093-4141

RE: Medicare No. xxx xx xxxx
D.C. Mental Health Services Patient no. xxxxxx

Dear Sir:

Enclosed are several documents relating to my psychiatric treatment at the George Washington University Medical Center Department of Psychiatry "(GW"). I received out-patient care provided by GW in the period immediately prior to my being accepted for treatment by the District of Columbia Mental Health Services Administration (Commission on Mental Health Services), the current provider.

There is a possibility that GW has been engaged in a racketeering conspiracy with the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld ("Akin Gump"), located in Washington, DC, and that actions taken by GW and senior managers at Akin Gump in furtherance of the conspiracy have had the necessary effect of defrauding the U.S. Social Security Administration.

I believe that under these circumstances it is advisable that the U.S. Social Security Administration review this matter with the D.C. Commission on Mental Health Services, the current provider. It may be advisable that the D.C. Commission on Mental Health Services waive its fee for treatment in my case.

The Washington Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (David M. Bowie, Supervisory Special Agent) is familiar with this matter. The telephone number of the FBI Washington Field Office is (202) 252 7801.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman

enclosures:

1. Comm'n Mental Health Services 2/17/97
2. Starr - 1/26/98
3. Singh - 1/24/98
________________________________________________

February 21, 1998
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW
#136
Washington, DC 20008-4530

Maryland Medicare
1946 Greenspring Drive
Timonium, MD 21093-4141

RE: Medicare No. xxx xx xxxx
D.C. Mental Health Services Patient no. xxxxxx

Dear Sir:

Further to my letter to Maryland Medicare dated February 17, 1998 I submit several documents pertinent to my current illness.

1. Computer disc that contains pleadings that I prepared and filed in an appeal currently pending before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (Freedman v. D.C. Dept. Human Rights, no. 96-CV-961) relating to a prior determination by the D.C. Dept. of Human Rights that there was no probable cause to believe that my job termination by the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld was discriminatory.

The District of Columbia Office of Corporation Counsel (Charles L. Reischel, Esq.: 202 727 6252) represents that senior attorneys of one of the largest law firms in the country honestly believed that my complaint that I had been harassed by a supervisor (who happens to be a court-adjudicated racist) was the product of a psychiatric symptom associated with a risk of violence; despite the fact that the attorney managers can no longer even recall the name of one of the mental health professionals they consulted; despite the fact that the consulting psychiatrist (Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D.) denies in writing ever having spoken to one of the attorney managers who alleges that he spoke with her; and despite the fact that my personnel records state that I was, without exception, an above-average employee who got on well with his coworkers and who had no record of disciplinary infractions.

2. The George Washington University Medical Center Department of Psychiatry represents that during the period of my out-patient psychiatric treatment at that facility (1992-1996) I suffered from bi-polar disorder, paranoid schizophrenia, delusional (paranoid) disorder, and possibly schizoaffective disorder; that these disabling psychotic mental illnesses have left my intellectual functioning intact; and that these illnesses cannot be detected on comprehensive psychological testing. Incidentally, Robert S. Strauss, Esq., a senior manager of my former employer, serves on the Board of Directors of a unit of the George Washington University Medical Center (The Ronald W. Reagan Institute of Emergency Medicine).

Enclosed are several documents that support the following summary of peculiarities relating to my psychiatric treatment at GW during the period 1992-1996:

The initial diagnosis of bi-polar disorder (1992) was succeeded by a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia (1996). Bi-polar disorder is considered a rule-out for paranoid schizophrenia, that is, the two diagnoses are mutually inconsistent.

A battery of psychological tests performed by GW in May 1994 failed to disclose any psychiatric illness, and failed to disclose any psychotic thought processes. I was not on any medication at the time of testing.

Additional psychological testing performed in March 1996 (one month after I was officially advised of the diagnosis paranoid schizophrenia, see letter dated February 14, 1996 from Dr. Georgopoulos) failed to disclose any psychotic thought processes. I was not on any medication at the time of testing.

Results of IQ testing performed by the Philadelphia Public Schools when I was 11.5 and 12.5 years old yielded IQ scores of 125 and 122, respectively. The IQ score yielded by the testing performed in May 1994 by GW was 125. The literature indicates that, typically, severe mental illness tends to depress IQ scores significantly.

I believe the above-described background circumstances relating to my psychiatric treatment by the current provider (The D.C. Mental Health Services Administration) warrant a request by Maryland Medicare to St. Elizabeths Hospital to waive the fee for treatment in my case.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman

cc: St. Elizabeths Hospital (patient no. xxxxxx)
_________________________________

April 20, 1998
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW
#136
Washington, DC 20008-4530

Gerry Onorato
Customer Service Representative
Maryland Medicare Part A
1946 Greenspring Drive
Timonium, MD 21093-4141

RE: Medicare No. xxx xx xxxx

Dear Ms. Onorato:

Thank you for your letter dated April 16, 1998 advising of your review of my psychiatric treatment by the George Washington University Medical Center, during the period 1992-1996.

I enclose a letter dated April 1, 1998 that I received from the Executive Office of the President (The President's Initiative on Race), which is pertinent to the above matter. The letter states that the White House has forwarded a collection of documents (including some documents that I also forwarded to Maryland Medicare) to the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.

Again, as I have advised, the Washington Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (David M. Bowie, S.A.) is familiar with this matter.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman

Enclosures:

White House 4/1/98
Kean 6/30/98 [The President's Commission on Race]
City Paper 3/26/93
GW Consent
Washington City Paper, March 26, 1993

The following is a blurb from the 1993 Washington City Paper that I forwarded to Medicare:

Un-Civil Rights

The law 'n' lobbying firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld may have civil-rights leader Vernon Jordan among its partners, but it still has racial tension in its ranks. Patricia A. McNeil, a black data-processor fired from Akin Gump last April after 4 « years of employment, has sued the firm, charging racial discrimination. McNeil's suit, on file at U.S. District Court, alleges that her supervisor, described as "Ms. Robertson" in the suit, engaged in "offensive conduct such as telling racial jokes, making comments to the effect that blacks are perceived as not working as hard as white employees, are shiftless, lazy, [and] incompetent. . . ." When McNeil became pregnant with her second child in August 1991, Robertson said "she did not understand why blacks have so many babies," according to the suit. "These were not isolated incidents," says McNeil's lawyer, James Kestell, "we have plenty of witnesses to the racial jokes." (Akin Gump did not return Washington City Paper's call to discuss the suit.)