Island needs a name
once and for all
When and how is a final decision going to be made about our island’s name? Glad it will not be Big Island, but is it Hawaii Island or Island of Hawaii?
Time to make a decision. Will the Chamber of Commerce or the post office, or the mayor’s office, or whoever it is, decide? Time needs to be now, in my opinion.
Marjorie Erway
Kailua-Kona
Holding HMSA accountable
takes dogged effort
We wanted to thank WHT for informing elderly Medicare and Akamai Advantage members of HMSA about these wrongful billings.
We were a little disappointed that the young WHT reporter who has been working with us, in person and in emails for months, did not receive the credit for this serious issue and article. He informed us, that out of Gov. Ige, Mayor Kim, Sen. Green, Executive Office of Aging/SHIP and the Hawaii County Council, that we asked numerous times for help in alerting the elderly, only Sen. Green gave him a statement. But it was not in the article.
The letter that we received from Ann Duarte, CMS/SFO, that we provided to the newspaper, was not mentioned. We were told, if we wanted to have that letter published in WHT, it would cost us $1,344. Maybe it was not mentioned because that CMS letter was responding to a complaint against HMSA for not taking responsibility for these wrongful billings and for not looking further than ours, until we filed a complaint with CMS.
However, and thankfully, he did mention that we check everything we receive from HMSA “with a fine-toothed comb,” and we wanted to mention the main reason we do that and the basis of that May 14 article. We have reported to HMSA that their doctors have been adding to the $60 billion in Medicare fraud with absolutely no responsibility or accountability. We say this to HMSA — if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
You ask yourself, how, as your average American citizen, do you stop $60 billion in Medicare fraud? One doctor at a time. Do not be afraid to report them, even if you are not paying for it. In the long run, we all pay.
“Perseverance is stubbornness with a purpose” — Josh Shipp.
Tom and Christine Russi
Kailua-Kona
WHT at fault for nasty discourse
I hold you, WHT, responsible for inciting so much hatred in our community by constantly running political commentaries from talking heads spewing their negativity.
Be it residents of this island or public figures, you seem to go out of your way to find the nastiest comments and most negative letters to run. Why? When Obama was president you didn’t react like this. Is the WHT so partisan that you can’t at least fact check stuff before you run it? How is the negativity you’re spreading any better than Fake News channels?
I’m disappointed in our community leaders (that would be you) for leading the charge against others. You run 90 percent hate comments and 10 percent rebuttals to try and make up the difference, but the math don’t add up to common sense. “TRC” or Tired of Reading Crap.
Aunty Anne Hamilton
Keauhou
