Menendez doc shock
Pol’s aide stunned M’care director
A former official with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said he was so dumbstruck by arguments thrown at him by staffers for Sen. Robert Menendez — over what turned out to be a rich doctor’s Medicare fraud — that he stood up in the middle of a conference call and walked out.
Dr. Louis Jacques, a former director at CMS, testified in Newark federal court Wednesday that a female aide to Menendez argued over the phone in 2009 that Dr. Salomon Melgen should be excused for overbilling Medicare by $8.9 million because “bad medicine is not illegal.”
“Doctor Melgen is a personal friend of the senator. Bad medicine is not illegal. Medicare should pay these claims,” Jacques recalled the staffer saying.
“It was then I thought, ‘I should stand up, stretch and clear my head,’ Jacques told the jury.
“I stood up and stood outside the door for a period of time and then walked back in.”
Menendez, 63, stands accused of accepting bribes from the West Palm Beach, Fla., ophthalmologist — including private-jet trips and vacations — in exchange for favors, such as help with Melgen’s Medicare dispute.
Melgen, who is on trial alongside Menendez, was convicted of 67 counts of Medicare fraud in a separate trial earlier this year.
Retired Sen. Tom Harkin ” (D-Iowa) also took the stand Wednesday to describe a 2011 “courtesy” meeting he had with Melgen over the same Medicare issue.
“I did it as a courtesy,” Harkin said of the meeting, which he took at the request of fellow Democrat Menendez.
At the time, Harkin chaired a Senate health committee that shared oversight of Medicaid and Medicare, but he took no action to help Melgen, the jury was told.
As Harkin left the courtroom, he shook hands with Menendez.