Tag: Trina Health clinic
Man Behind Controversial Diabetes Treatment Pleads Guilty in Public Corruption Case
The founder of a nationwide chain of diabetes clinics pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to conspiring to bribe an Alabama legislator.
Sacramento, California, lawyer G. Ford Gilbert used the clinics, including one in San Diego, to offer insulin infusion treatments that he claimed could reverse diabetes complications. Inewsource.org investigated the clinics for months, and experts it interviewed called the procedure a fraud and a scam. Medicare and some private insurance companies also refused to cover the treatments.
Gilbert was indicted in April on charges stemming from a $2,000 payment he made in 2016 to then-Alabama House Majority Leader Micky Ray Hammon, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montgomery. In exchange for the money, Hammon tried to win support for legislation that would have forced health insurer Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama to pay for Trina Health treatments.
The insurance company had refused to pay for the insulin infusions at Trina’s three Alabama clinics. Read more.
Another Legislator Indicted in Corruption Case Involving Diabetes Health Clinic
Alabama Rep. Randy Davis has been indicted on allegations he was involved in a plan to pressure Blue Cross Blue Shield to cover diabetes treatments at a string of health clinics with which he was involved.
Davis, a Republican from Daphne, was charged by federal prosecutors in Montgomery with several counts of bribery, according to the indictment.
The allegations are part of the corruption case brought against state Rep. Jack Williams, R-Vestavia Hills; lobbyist Martin J. “Marty” Connors of Alabaster; and G. Ford Gilbert of Carmichael, California, who owned the Trina Health company. Read more.
More stories about the new indictment:
• Rep. Randy Davis Indicted on Bribery Charges (Montgomery Advertiser)
• Outgoing State Rep. Randy Davis Indicted in Bribery Case (AL.com)
• Lawmaker Indicted On Bribery Charges (AP)
BirminghamWatch in April ran stories published by fellow nonprofit news site inewsource, which had spent months investigating Gilbert and Trina Health operations to produce its Hustling Hope series.
Hustling Hope: Doctors Debunk Diabetes Treatment as Fraud Charges Hit Clinic Executive
Just imagine: A nonsurgical treatment that helps millions of people with complications from diabetes restore vision, repair damaged kidneys, and reverse heart disease and cognitive decline. A treatment that heals wounds in their legs and feet, repairs damage from stroke, and eliminates a common type of diabetic nerve pain called neuropathy.
That’s what lawyer G. Ford Gilbert and his network of Trina Health clinics have been promising with his IV insulin infusions offered through his Sacramento-based company. The Trina CEO calls the procedure “miraculous,” and he has not been deterred by the nation’s top experts in diabetes, who aggressively debunk his procedure, calling it outright fraud and a scam. Read more.
Hustling Hope: San Diego Doctor Runs Controversial Diabetes Clinic
Just about every Tuesday morning around 7:30, John McCreary of Poway can be found waiting for Dr. James Novak’s office to open. Almost always, McCreary said, he’s the first one there.
Novak’s practice is listed as the only one in the San Diego area offering Trina Health’s “Artificial Pancreas Treatment,” a four-hour IV insulin infusion procedure for people with diabetes. Some people like McCreary, 69, who has wrestled with diabetic nerve pain for years, said they think the procedure is working for them. Read more.
You can find more segments in the Hustling Hope
series on inewsource.org.
