In this Club Nurse episode, host Colton Lord delivers a roundup of recent nursing‑related news. He begins with the U.S. Department of Justice’s $6.5 billion healthcare‑fraud takedown, noting that 455 defendants—including dozens of nurses and nurse practitioners—were charged across home‑health, hospice, wound‑care, telehealth and behavioral‑health settings, and highlighting specific schemes such as a $4 billion Medicare wound‑care fraud and a $906 million skin‑graft fraud involving a Nevada nurse practitioner. Lord then shifts to lighter items: a viral Love Island USA moment where a new BSN graduate, Kenzie Annes, mistakenly mixed up visual‑acuity numbers, sparking online chatter. He celebrates EMT Simone Kelly, who climbed a subway structure at a Knicks parade, administered Narcan and saved an overdose victim, earning public praise. The episode also reports on a Nurse.org survey of 600 nurses revealing extreme patient‑to‑nurse ratios—median worst‑ever 16:1 in acute care and up to 120:1 in long‑term care—underscoring staffing challenges and prompting Joint Commission attention. Throughout, Lord plugs Nurse.org resources, including discounted tickets for nurse‑appreciation events, exclusive product discounts, and links to full articles. He closes with a reminder to stay ethical, hydrated, and supportive of fellow caregivers.
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Welcome to Club Nurse.
I'm Colton Lord, your host. By you being here today, it shows me that you are someone who wants to learn, Grow, laugh, connect, and just let your emotions flow. We are here to share real stories and hear real life experiences from real people. You are not alone in this, and Club Nurse is here to show you that. Don't forget to follow the show and share today's episode with someone you love. Now let's dive into today's conversation.
Welcome back to Club Nurse, everybody. My name is Colton Lord, your host, and we are covering some nurse news this week. Uh, so let's dive into it. Also, if you are interested in any of these stories, you can find them on nurse.org/news. All of the articles are there with detailed stories about these current events and news happenings in the world. So this headline states nurses and doctors are among 455 charged in $6.5 billion DOJ healthcare fraud takedown. So the U.S. Department of Justice charged 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals in connection with more than $6.5 billion in alleged healthcare fraud, calling it the largest takedown of its kind in the agency's history. The cases reach into home health, hospice, wound care, telehealth, and behavioral health, the same settings where nurses work every day. And several allegations describe patient harm, including death. Federal officials say they are shifting from a pay-and-chase model to data analytics that flag suspicious billing before money goes out, signaling tougher scrutiny of Of the orders and records clinicians sign off on. Yeah, I don't know what is happening. Like I said, there are multiple news stories, headlines of healthcare fraud that are— that is literally happening right now. So the Justice Department says the operation spanned 56 federal districts and 45 states and territories, with all 50 state Medicaid fraud control units taking part. The government reports seizing roughly $182 million in cash, luxury vehicles, jewelry, and other assets tied to the alleged schemes. The FBI also added 2 fugitives to its Most Wanted Fraudsters list: Khalid Ahmed Sattari, tied to an alleged $547 million genetic testing, uh, dollars scheme and believed to be in the United Arab Emirates, and Emily Tai, a former lab owner whose company allegedly billed Medicare about $142 million and collected roughly $95 million, who is believed to be in Vietnam. The American people and the world are our best source of information. That is what the FBI Director Kash Patel said. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche added, if you seek to harm or cheat Americans, we will find you. I just feel like these things never turn out well. Any kind of fraud or money laundering or things like that, like, I just feel— I mean, I guess we hear about them, like these headlines, so there probably are a lot out there that have maybe gotten away with things like this. But I just feel like if you're doing things that are not ethical, which is like the number one thing that we are preached as new healthcare workers is to be ethical, have morals. Uh, like, you're just— you're gonna get caught, man. Like, this is— this is just some shady stuff. Some of the largest dollar figures come from an alleged amniotic wound allograft scheme. Prosecutors say 11 defendants across 6 districts billed Medicare roughly $4 billion and collected more than $2 billion, marking, uh, products up by about 2,000% and paying kickbacks to marketers and providers. Other cases hit closer to the bedside care. In a hospice case, a defendant, Oren David Shekar, allegedly generated $27.7 million in fraudulent Medicare claims by using deceased beneficiaries' identities and creating backdated medical records. Wow, that is crazy. Apparently there are some nurses involved. Uh, the Department of Justice is National healthcare fraud takedown included nurses and nurse practitioners among the defendants, but the public release does not provide a complete nurse-by-nurse roster in the main announcement. Southern District of Texas: a nurse practitioner was charged in a $906 million Allograft scheme. Middle District of Florida: 3 defendants were charged in a $118 million Allograft scheme, including a nurse practitioner. And opiate diversion cases: 36 defendants, including 28 licensed medical professionals, were charged. So what nurses need to know is the phrase 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals is part of the story nurses should sit with. Registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and other licensed clinicians fall under that umbrella, and the settings under scrutiny— home health, hospice, wound care, and telehealth— are nursing-heavy by design. Or these are workplaces where a nurse's signature, assessment, or plan of care can become the documentation a billing claim rests So be careful what you're signing off on. I've never worked in any of these settings as far as home health, hospice, wound care, but I guess just be careful what you are signing off on. You don't wanna be a part of a major fraudulent scheme, just saying. Okay, in other news, let's talk about Love Island's nursing grad who just went viral for a medical mix-up. This is, to me, this is just silly. Of course, Love Island, I've never, I don't watch it. I'm not a huge reality TV person. Sorry, not sorry. There are some things that I watch, you know, that I'll tune into, But I'm just, I just can't. I don't know what it is. I have a hard time following reality TV. It's okay. You can come for me. It's fine. The Love Island USA season 8 has not one, but two healthcare workers. And by the way, there may be some spoilers here. So if you don't want to hear about Love Island, I would just skip ahead. Kenzie Annes is a brand new BSN graduate from Georgia and Casey Chandler, a nursing assistant from Fresno. There was a 24-year-old nurse from Staffordshire as one of the original cast members on Love Island UK season 13. But this is the spoiler alert. I guess this belongs to Kenzie. In episode 13, Caleb mentioned his 20/13 vision during a conversation in the villa. Kenzie pushed back, convinced her 20/30 score was stronger. When Caleb tried to correct her, she held firm. No, it's not. I was in nursing school, bro. She had it backward. A 20/30 score means she needs to be 20 feet away to see what the average person can see from 30 feet. Slightly below average. Caleb's 20/13 means he sees at 20 feet what someone with normal vision would need to be at 13 feet away to see. This is, again, this to me is just so, so silly. Like, this is what's going viral because she made a mistake saying she went to nursing school, so she knows the visual acuity scores better than him. Just, just to me, it's just so silly. And also, we honestly don't— I don't really remember even covering this in nursing school. They probably glossed over it. Honest mistake. I mean, I guess if she's gonna have some conviction and use the nursing school line, I guess she should be confident that she knows what she's talking about. But maybe she was confident, she just had it mixed up in her head. But why would this go viral? I mean, who cares? Who cares if she mixed up her visual acuity? We all make mistakes, girl. Kenzie, girl, I wouldn't worry about it. I think you could still be a great nurse even if you mix up your visual acuity.
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Okay, this next story, oh my God, I watched this video on social media the other day and it's pretty wild. I didn't see the video of the EMT, uh, so I'm talking about the, uh, EMT who, uh, Simone Kelly, who went viral for saving a life of the Knicks parade. I saw the video of the guy who had climbed up on the top of like the subway. There was like a— I don't know what they call them. There's, uh, what are they— what do they call those? I don't know. Uh, subway structure. So the guy, the guy was recording. He could see somebody was passed out on top of the subway structure, like a little roof, and he alerted the police. I think that they were waiting for medical personnel to arrive, but he was worried, so he went up there. And in the video, he's like shaking this guy. You can obviously tell this guy is like, you know, overdosed on something. He was like passed out. Um, so I didn't see— I don't know if there's actual video footage of the EMT going up there and like administering Narcan, but she went up there, gave some Narcan, did some sternal rubs, and the guy's okay. He survived. And he, uh, Simone Kelly plans on going to medical school and focusing on substance abuse and emergency medicine, which I think is amazing. And I'm so glad that she's getting, getting her flowers and getting recognized. I think EMTs and paramedics are really unsung heroes, uh, in Healthcare, what they do is really hard work. And in the emergency departments that I've worked in, when you have EMTs and paramedics there, oh my gosh, it, it's a game changer. They are, they're so resourceful, they're so smart, they're so skilled. And, and this just goes to show having these people just walking the streets literally saves lives. It's even inspired me to maybe carry around some Narcan with me when I'm at big public events, or even just on a daily basis, having just like a little thing of Narcan in your bag. You never know whose life you could save. And I love that she is somebody who is interested in substance abuse and going into specializing in this kind of care. She's obviously going to have a bright and amazing career ahead of her because it starts with caring. You know, she cares. She has passion for it. She's going to be— she's going to be amazing. So thank you. I love this. This video said, give this woman a key to the city. And I have to agree. Give this woman a key to New York City. All right, we're going to cover 2 more quick stories. Um, so let's talk about this. Nurse.org asked 600 nurses their worst patient ratios ever. Um, their answers are wild. I will start off with my own as far as patient ratios. Again, most of my career has been in the ER. When I worked on med-surg units, I never had more than 6, and that was during COVID in Arizona. When I worked in the ICU, I never had more than 2, and that was in Boston. In the ER, I've kind of worked around Different, uh, states— Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Arizona. I'm now in California. And really, the worst I ever had was probably Arizona, but that was like usually in like a fast-track kind of setting. So for those of you who don't know, like in an ER in a fast-track area, these are more— they're supposed to be like urgent care style patients, and it gets a little bit used and abused sometimes when there's nowhere else to put people. But I would have a lot of people. Like, if I was opening that area, I may have like 7 to 10 Patients that are again supposed to be lower acuity, so it's not supposed to be that bad, but still that's hustling. It keeps you busy. One person goes a little bit sideways and it kind of throws off the flow and can turn a little dangerous and stressful for sure. But across the 600+ responses to nurse.org 2026 highest patient ratio poll, the median worst ever nurse-to-patient ratio was 16 to 1, meaning half of all respondents have been assigned even more than that at some point in their career. The data splits sharply by setting. In acute care, the median worst-ever ratio was 16 to 1. In long-term care and SNF settings, it was 46 to 1, reflecting a fundamentally different staffing reality, not just a worst day. Nearly 1 in 3 nurses reported a worst-ever assignment of 30 patients or more, with long-term care respondents regularly reporting ratios of 60, 80, to even 120 patients to a single nurse overnight. No, you could not. I'm sorry. I have to be careful with my bold statements, but you could not pay me enough to work in a long-term care facility. These nurses, these staff is— I know I just said EMTs and medics are unsung heroes, but these people really are as well. That is dangerous. That is scary. That is hard. That is busy. And a lot of times when long-term care patients come into the ER, you know, they're a mess because these nurses, these staff, These people taking care of these patients at these facilities don't have the resources. They don't have the manpower, the woman power. It's really sad all around. Wow. This really— I couldn't believe when I was looking through these, I would go to nurse.org/news and look at this full article to kind of see these numbers. People were saying that they had 6 in the PCU with 4 on the vent.
Wow.
And then there's like there's a little area talking about like if emergencies happen, like people called off on Christmas Eve. And so there's just no other option. I suppose.
I don't know.
I don't have the answers for you. All I know is patient ratios is a big deal. I do know that it has now come to the Joint Commission's attention and is a, um, a thing that they're looking for as well. Um, so I think that's hopefully going to be helpful. I don't know. Um, we'll see as time goes on. Uh, all right, the last thing I want to talk about— a Nevada nurse practitioner— this is more fraud— indicted in alleged $906 million skin graft fraud scheme. Prosecutors allege that Marzial Yuki targeted elderly Medicare beneficiaries, including patients in hospice care, in a massive allograft billing scheme. That seems to be a trend, um, the wound care, uh, billing schemes. But, uh, she was making a lot of money, girl. When I was looking at this, dude, she was living lavish. She was not trying to hide that money. She was not trying to just take care of her family. This girl was living Like she was living better than Oprah. She was living better than Beyoncé. This girl had a $594,000 Ferrari, $158,000 Cadillac Escalade, an $865,000 Bulgari necklace, a million-dollar home in Hawaii, and a $3 million certificate of deposit. Prosecutors also allege she spent about $4.6 million on a beach resort project in the Philippines. The government says the scale of the scheme was significant enough to trigger asset seizure and a money judgment. The indictment says prosecutors are seeking to recover vehicles, accounts, and real estate linked to alleged fraud. Why this matters for nurses. Skin substitute fraud has become a major enforcement focus, which I am seeing a trend here. Nurse.org has been tracking the recent wave of related cases. The Yuki indictment shows why federal investigators are paying close attention. Prosecutors say high-dollar wound care billing, retroactive charting, and referral kickbacks can turn a clinical practice into a federal fraud So girl, be careful out there and be ethical. Have morals. And I know that money makes people do wild things, but girl, it is not worth it. It's not worth it. Be honest. If you make less money because you're being honest, I mean, that's how you sleep at night. That's how you not go to— that's how you avoid going to prison, and that's how you avoid losing everything, including your nursing license or your medical license or whatever you are. Girl, just be honest. Okay, it's number one take home from these things today with all this fraud is to just be honest and have morals. Okay, that is it for nurse.org's Club Nurse Nurse News this week. Thank you so much for listening again. My name is Colton Lord. I do cover nurse news. We don't do this every single week, but we try to keep you up to date with the most recent stories in healthcare and nursing. And if you like this, make sure you're following along. I do have guests on the podcast as well sometimes. Not every week, but that's it for this week. And I hope that you have an amazing week, amazing weekend, and are taking care of yourself. It is summer. Stay hydrated and enjoy, enjoy your time. As we know, working in healthcare, life is short, girl. So enjoy the time that you have, and we'll see you next time. Bye-bye.
From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to thank you for being here at Club Nurse. I hope you gained something valuable From today's episode, and if you did, remember to share this episode with someone that you love. Follow me on socials at Nurse Daddies or Colton Lord 17, and be sure to follow nurse.org to stay informed with all of the hottest healthcare topics. Until next time, take care of yourself the way you take care of everyone else. Love ya. Bye.
