this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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283
Elizabeth Holmes barred from federal health programs for 90 years (arstechnica.com)
submitted 5 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
40 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Elizabeth Holmes—the disgraced and incarcerated founder of the infamous blood-testing startup Theranos—is barred from participating in federal health programs for nine decades, according to an announcement from the health department Friday.

The exclusion means that Holmes is barred from receiving payments from federal health programs for services or products, which significantly restricts her ability to work in the health care sector. It also prevents her from participating in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs. With a 90-year term, the exclusion is lifelong for Holmes, who is currently 39.

The exclusion was announced by Inspector General Christi Grimm of the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General.

Holmes is serving an 11-year, three-month sentence for defrauding investors of her blood-testing startup, Theranos, which she founded in 2003. At the time, Holmes claimed to have developed proprietary technology that could perform hundreds of medical tests using just a small drop of blood from a finger prick. The remarkable claim helped her drive the company's valuation to a stunning $9 billion in 2014, and set up lucrative partnerships. But, in reality, the technology never worked. The company collapsed in 2018, and she was convicted of fraud in 2022.

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[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 35 points 5 months ago (2 children)

She tricked people into thinking something was real. The only people impacted were the “defrauded investors.” She gets 11 years in jail and a total ban on the industry.

However, we have real criminals in our political system who have made false claims about the effectiveness of medication, against the advise of medical advisors, that inflated the stock prices of certain pharmaceutical companies, and resulted in the deaths of many people—yet nothing will happen to them.

So this lady might be a crook, but she’s not a murderer.

[–] Aidinthel@reddthat.com 71 points 5 months ago (2 children)

You are mistaken. Real doctors and patients made serious medical decisions based on the results from her tests.

One of the most troubling patient stories that Scavdis would learn about was the case of a pregnant woman whose Theranos test indicated that she was miscarrying. Gratefully, she later learned, she was not. Another woman revealed to Scavdis the pain and fear she experienced when her Theranos blood test indicated that her life-threatening ectopic pregnancy had been dissolved when, in fact, it had not.

https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/regulatory-news-stories-and-features/patient-advocacy-lies-heart-fda-agents-theranos-case

[–] nonailsleft@lemm.ee -1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But isn't it part of the story that they had the actual tests done by other, established laboratories, because their own equipment never worked?

I guess every laboratory has a number of incorrect diagnoses. And real doctors and patients act on those as well.

It's not like Ms. Holmes was filling in fake reports on her phone to scam patients, is what we're saying

[–] Aidinthel@reddthat.com 9 points 5 months ago

The promise Theranos made was that their tests could be run with a much smaller sample of blood than other labs. Therefore, the results were inherently unreliable even if they used real machines, because they didn't have the sample amount the machines were designed for.

[–] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The only people impacted were the “defrauded investors.

I don't know where you got that idea.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has decided that Theranos' Newark, California, facility poses "immediate jeopardy to patient safety."

In December 2013, a lab inspector found that the lab didn't meet the required standards for at least 10 different blood tests.

Despite the changes that Theranos implemented after the 2013 inspection, the company's California lab failed even the simplest of tests the next year. The company obtained "unsatisfactory" scores — 70 percent and 40 percent — for two blood typing tests in early 2014,

In April 2015, Theranos was caught once again skipping over a fundamental safety procedure, at a lab in Scottsdale, Arizona. Theranos couldn't produce data showing that its staff has tested the lab's commercial instruments before using them on customer samples,

https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/27/10853340/government-says-theranos-lab-poses-immediate-threat-to-public-safety

[–] MamboGator@lemmy.world 31 points 5 months ago (2 children)

If she's still alive in 90 years, maybe we'll regret it.

[–] EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website 14 points 5 months ago

I hear she’s got a machine that can diagnose all illnesses from a single dose of blood, so she might get there

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

imagine this: It's the year 2114 and 129-year-old Elizabeth Holmes, still sprightly & deviant & sociopathic, is starting up a new medical industry and defrauding investors all over again because none of her contemporaries remember her shenanigans from 90 years prior because they weren't even born yet

[–] GilgameshCatBeard@lemmy.ca 29 points 5 months ago (3 children)

And yet…. Antivaxxers walk free.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 26 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And the Sacklers' walk free.

[–] theangryseal@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That depresses me.

I grew up in their test market. I watched every friend I had lose their parents to opioid addiction. I watched my dad go from busting his ass caring for us, camping trips, fishing trips, and hunting trips, to hanging out behind a car wash with other unemployed junkies while we cooked on a wood stove and had no electricity.

I grew up in it so it was normal. I ended up on it. You either had a social life or you didn’t. There weren’t very many sober people left by 2005.

I have seen death and chaos all of my life. My brother and I are among about 5 boys from our neighborhood left. We got sober because luckily our mother never touched the stuff and was able to be there for us. The rest in our age group are dead. Overdoses and suicides because of the addiction.

I knew nothing but violence and chaos as a kid because they lied and made junkies of entire communities.

Money is magical. As long as you pay your taxes you’ll be fine. Might have to deal with some embarrassment from time to time, you might get your name taken off of something. Other than that, luxury and protection.

The only reason Holmes is in jail is that she fucked with other people with money. She should have found a way to get rich poisoning the poors.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago

The only reason Holmes is in jail is that she fucked with other people with money. She should have found a way to get rich poisoning the poors.

That's also the only reason rich people stay rich ... they own the justice system, Wall St and the banking system lock, stock and barrel.

I'm glad you made it through, and sad so many didn't.

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago

Don’t forget the ivermectin pusher with the spray tan

[–] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

She is an absolute psychopath and should be jailed for life.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 7 points 5 months ago (4 children)

It also prevents her from participating in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs.

This is pretty unfair imo. I don't think she would going to used them, but still.

[–] prole@sh.itjust.works 14 points 5 months ago

It's unclear what they mean by "participate" in this context. The sentence right before that is talking about being barred from receiving payments from federal health programs, so I'm wondering if they mean "participating" on the provider's side, rather than the patient's.

Don't really care enough to look into it though.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

It's not about fair, it's about sending the message that you don't fuck with rich people's money, especially not in a way that publically embarrasses them.

[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Imagine she's 80, broke, alone and is struggling. She's already served her time, but she's still not allowed health services? Seems kinda fucked, and it's fucked that the government has access to this slippery slope of banning convicts from health services

[–] adrian783@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

nah fuck her

[–] bramblepatchmystery@slrpnk.net 3 points 5 months ago

They haven't banned her as a future recipient of health services. They just effectively banned her from ever making a dime in the entire health services industry.

[–] Eezyville@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

If they don't want her to participate in Medicare and Medicaid then go all the way and not allow her to pay into it with her tax dollars. This seems like cruel and unusual punishment.

EDIT: It also seems arbitrary because I don't think this was part of her sentence.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Justice is not swift.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Taylor is though

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

just shake it off

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 3 points 5 months ago

Hard to move fast when you're blind

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I honestly believe that this (what she did) happens all of the time. But she was too young, too female, to get away with it.

I suspect we won’t see any more consequences in the future for most people. I’d love to be proven wrong.

[–] squirmy_wormy@lemmy.world 16 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I'd bet it's more she went the silicon valley route and banked on the tech avenue/public bragging to make money. The others fly under the radar.

[–] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 months ago

Definitely.

[–] Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

But she was too young, too female, to get away with it.

The combination of these two usually makes it easier to get away with things

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 4 points 5 months ago

Echoes of Martha Stewart.

[–] TserriednichThe4th@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

The only reason she even got funding was because she was the female steve jobs

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It also prevents her from participating in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs.

...

Holmes is serving an 11-year, three-month sentence

So what happens if she gets sick in prison?

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

Participating as a provider, not as a patient

[–] Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

She will still get benefits, every inmate gets benefits even though the care you receive in prison is low quality it's still cruel and unusual to not give prisoners access to at least minimal health care needs. A case like that wouldn't even make it to the supreme court. She just can't receive payments or work for a company that receives payments from those services.