Cesspool

Cite Soleil, Haiti (Photo by John Carroll)

In the early 2000s, as I started to study the EMS issues in Peoria, it became very obvious that the physician-industry relationship in Peoria was strong. And not in a good way. 

The idea was (and still is) to keep Advanced Medical Transport as the only ALS and transport agency in Peoria. 

Lawyers hired by AMT, who were at times OSF's and PAEMS lawyers at the same time, were hired to help keep AMT dominant and profitable. 

And the strongest politicians and business leaders in Peoria were used to help with the AMT Medicare fraud debacle and the three Peoria hospitals paid the feds 2.1 million dollars in fines for AMT. AMT's errors were described to me by the strongest of the strong in Peoria as "secretarial and administrative errors" regarding upcoding which led to bilking the taxpayers for huge amounts of money.  

And physicians were put in the right place to make sure that AMT would continue its monopoly in Peoria. 

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria told me, "You have nothing cold on them (AMT)" and threatened me if I petitioned for a church tribunal against OSF for its misdeeds and dangerous relationships. 

Many of the original players in this saga and cesspool of corruption have retired or been retired. But like dictators in some countries we know and love, in Peoria they have been replaced with like-minded people. 

And people are still afraid about speaking out. 

How do we stop this from continuing?

John A. Carroll, MD

www.haitianhearts.org