OPERATION LIFE REPORT - Jan. 1977 INTRODUCTION

On December 28, 1976, Clark County District Judge, Howard Babcock, ordered the defendants' motion for preliminary injunction be denied, in Nevada State Welfare Division (plaintiff) versus Garnet T. Ice, Operation Life Community Health Center, Ruby Duncan, and Clark County Welfare Rights Organization (defendants). The injunction had been filed on behalf of the defendants by Clark County Legal Services, after the State Welfare Division had cancelled its Early Periodic Screening and Diagnostic Treatment (EPSDT) with the Operation Life Community Health Center (OLCHC). The Welfare Division claimed fraudulent billing practices by OLCHC, its M.D., Garnet Ice, and Ruby Duncan, board member of the clinic, as the reason for cancellation. In the state's civil action against the community health center, Operation Life is charged with "submitting to plaintiff for payment of at least 975 invoices of EPSDT screenings, representing that tests were administered by a medical doctor, and demanding payment in the sum of owing for EPSDT performance by a medical doctor, when in fact the screenings were performed by other than a medical doctor, all to plaintiff's damage in excess of $10,000." The statement of Complaint went on to state that "The defendants knew when they submitted said EPSDT screening invoices for payment, that said tests were in fact not performed by defendant, Medical Doctor Ice, and that bills were fraudulent and false and were maliciously submitted for the purpose of inducing plaintiff to remit a higher payment than required under the aforesaid provider agreement." The following account gives the chronological progression of events that led up to the civil action and Judge Babcock's decision on the 28th of December, 1976.