The Boston Globe - 30.08.2019

FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2019 The Boston Globe Metro B

By John R. Ellement
GLOBE STAFF
MassHealth made nearly $
million in improper payments
for medications during a two-
year period that ended in 2017,
according to state Auditor Su-
zanne Bump’s office.
The program issued pay-
ments for 43.5 million medica-
tions made between Jan. 1,
2015, and June 30, 2017 — and

25,144 were improperly paid

for varying reasons, Bump’s of-

fice said on Thursday.

In the statement, Bump’s

office said that MassHealth:

RPaid $300,863 for pre-

scription drug refills that

should not have been provided.

In one case, a patient whose

doctors ordered a one-time

prescription for amphetamines

was improperly given two 30-

day refills, allowing the patient

to get a 90-day supply.

RPaid $526,229 for emer-

gency refills that were not sup-

posedtobeissued.MassHealth

authorizes pharmacies to fill

prescriptions on an emergency

basis when a client loses their

prescription. But, Bump’s of-

fice found, MassHealth violat-

ed its own regulations and re-

peatedly paid for emergency

refills.

RPaid $155,443 to pharma-

cies for over-the-counter drugs

supplied to members living in

nursing homes or skilled nurs-

ing facilities. MassHealth regu-

lations prohibit it from paying

for these prescriptions for

members residing in these fa-

cilities.

Bump cited the MassHealth

system known as the Pharmacy

Online Processing System as

the problem, saying it does not

have systems in place to identi-

fy and reject the flawed claims.

In a response to Bump’s au-

dit, MassHealth officials wrote

that they do “not agree with

this finding” and are convinced

that a “substantial number of

the claims identified in this

finding were appropriately

paid.”

MassHealthsaidsoftware

that was in use during the au-

dit period had some flaws that

led to mistakes made in the

tracking of prescriptions — and

those issues have since been

corrected.

John R. Ellement can be

reached at

[email protected]. Follow

him on Twitter @JREbosglobe.

Auditor says MassHealth made nearly $1 million in improper payments

cal bigots and predicated on an
insidious, inaccurate idea: that
LGBTQ Americans already en-
joy full equality, and that at-
tempts to celebrate them or end
discrimination somehow come
at the expense of straight Amer-
icans.
“We’re not there yet,” said
Logan Casey, of the LGBTQ pol-
icy and research group Move-
ment Advancement Project. “In
many places across the country,
it remains perfectly legal for
LGBTQ people to be discrimi-
nated against in housing, in
employment, in public places
and businesses, in health care,
in education, and many other
contexts.”
The LGBTQ community,
though, appears split on how to
respond to the event, which has
been skewered by many public
figures, from comedian Ste-
phen Colbert to US Representa-
tive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Some groups — including
Boston Pride, which organizes
the city’s massive annual LG-
BTQ pride parade — are trying
to ignore the provocation.
“It’satrollingevent,de-
signed to get a rise out of vul-
nerable communities,” the or-
ganization said.
Others insist Boston-area
residents must stand up against
hatred.
“These people are fascists
and Nazis,” said Elvin Mackel-

uSTRAIGHTPARADE
Continued from Page B

ston, of the group Solidarity

Against Hate-Boston, which is

organizing a counterprotest.

“We will be getting together the

biggest, proudest group we

can.”

Super Happy Fun America,

the group behind the parade,

denies that the parade or its or-

ganizers are bigoted, pointing

to their inclusion of black and

gay speakers. Yet its members

have close ties to the far right.

One of the parade’s sched-

uled speakers is the leader of

the Proud Boys, which the Anti-

Defamation League describes

as violent extremists who at-

tended the August 2017 white

supremacist rally in Charlottes-

ville, Va.

Parade organizer Mark Sa-

hady is part of Resist Marxism,

a group founded by an alt-right

leader with a history of vio-

lence. Sahady said he is Arab

and condemns racism.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh has

said his administration couldn’t

deny a permit based on the

views of an event’s organizers,

but added that Boston values

“acceptance of all.” Boston po-

lice said they planned “a large

presence of both uniformed

and undercover officers.”

The parade, happening

amid the chaos of Boston’s busy

college move-in weekend, will

include a pro-Trump vehicle

and floats. It will proceed from

Copley Square to City Hall Pla-

za, where participants plan to

raise their pink-and-blue

“straight pride” flag and show-

case speakers including Milo

Yiannopoulos, a former editor

at Breitbart, the alt-right web-

site.

Organizers estimated Satur-

day’s parade would draw 2,

participants, but only about 90

people said on Facebook they

would attend.

EmersonCollege,locatedby

the parade route, said it would

postpone an orientation event

and ban visitors from campus

buildings until 3 p.m.

The idea for the parade be-

gan in April, when Sahady, 44,

of Malden, and John Hugo, 56,

of Woburn, decided to test

whether Boston City Hall

would fly their “straight pride”

flag. The city often grants re-

quests to feature different flags

but rejected the group.

In response, Sahady, Hugo,

and Racioppi — a 37-year-old

law student from Salisbury —

decided to plan a parade to fur-

ther test the city’s treatment of

people with views that differed

from the mayor’s.

The group’s website says

heterosexuals are “an op-

pressed majority” that have

“languished in the shadows for

decades,” and that until the let-

ter “S” is added to the acronym,

“LGBTQ pride will continue to

be a system of oppression de-

signed to systematically erase

straight people.”

That unwarranted feeling of

exclusion is the same “us vs.

them” impulse behind the

white supremacist movement,

said Casey, a policy researcher

for the Movement Advance-

ment Project.

A majority of LGBTQ Ameri-

cans have suffered violence,

threats, or harassment, accord-

ing to a 2017 poll released by

NPR. Transgender people,

meanwhile, face record levels of

violence and frequently report

being denied health care.

LGBTQ advocates believe

“straight pride” events are sim-

ply the latest manifestation of

anti-LGBTQ bigotry, in which

overt slurs and attacks have

been replaced with insinua-

tions inspired by Internet trolls.

They observe that “straight

pride” supporters rarely debate

the substance of LGBTQ issues

and instead obsess over such

superficial concerns as positive

portrayals of LGBTQ characters

in TV shows.

Following a widespread

backlash to the parade’s an-

nouncement in June, organiz-

ers said the event’s purpose has

shifted to fighting a perceived

lack of tolerance for conserva-

tive ideas.

As evidence that they are be-

ing targeted, the group’s mem-

bers pointed to a series of set-

backs: police confiscated Sa-

hady’s three guns after his

license expired; PayPal shut

down their fund-raiser; and the

organizers were mailed enve-

lopes of powder — which

turned out to be glitter —

prompting bomb squad calls.

“As soon as I opened my

mouth about it, there he is —

he’s Hitler,” Hugo said, adding

that while he supports gay

rights, he disagrees with the

way schools, workplaces, and

sports leagues have handled

transgender issues. “The pen-

dulum has swung too far.”

Critics say the free-speech

rhetoric is just rebranding big-

otry. Emerson College president

Lee Pelton told students

Wednesdaythattheparadewas

really “meant to objectify the

‘other’ as unworthy, as de-

formed, as disfigured and, most

horribly, as something other

than human.”

Naomi Martin can be reached

at [email protected].

Follow her on Twitter at

@NaomiMartin. Dan Adams

can be reached at

[email protected]. Find

him on Twitter at

@Dan_Adams

StraightPrideParadeplannerssaythey’revictims,too

NIC ANTAYA FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

John Hugo (left) and Samson Racioppi hold the “straight

pride” flag that played a role in inspiring the parade.

‘AssoonasI

openedmymouth

aboutit,therehe

is—he’sHitler.’

JOHNHUGO

Straight Pride Parade planner

EVERYONE DREAMS OF HAVING THEIR

very own time machine. Joel Magee found his

at a Midwestern flea market in 1982 for just $20.

“I went over and looked at this old G.I. Joe

lunchbox,” recalled the 57-year Sioux City,

Iowa native. “All of a sudden, a flood of memo-

ries came back. I could see myself eating a ham

and cheese sandwich in the gym at Crescent

Park Elementary. I could see my friends and I

could see everything like I was in a time ma-

chine turning back the clock to 1967.

Such was the power of a humble lunchbox.

These days Magee helps bring the power of

vintage toys to others while showing off his

love for collecting at shows nationwide. From

board games to action figures, from model cars

to Comic books, Magee has seen it all.

He’s also bought a considerable amount of it.

And like any good collector, he owns one of the

first Barbie dolls ever made from way back in

1959 and he owns a copy of the original 1962

comic which brought Spider Man to life for the

first time. Plus, he’s even got a rare Jawa from

Star Wars with a plastic cape.

“In the movie, the Jawa had a cloth cape and

somebody at the factory put on a plastic cape,”

Magee said. “George Lucas went crazy, saying,

‘This figure is not supposed to have a plastic cape’

and he made them change it to cloth. But about

100 of them still made it out of the factory.”

Any of those toys would fetch thousands on

the open market and Magee knows that such

items can be found lying forgotten and gath-

ering dust in attics and garages coast to coast.

Just four years after his lunchbox find, he was

on the road going to toy shows looking for

lost treasures and today he encourages folks

to attend his buying events where old toys can

be appraised and exchanged for cold cash.

His company, The Toy Scout, is managed by

himself, his wife, Kimmy, and his daughter,

Tiffany.

“I’ve had people come back five or six times

over the course of a couple of days.” Magee

said. “People bring me toys by the thousands

and at every event there are toys I’ve never

seen before.”

Magee will be on the lookout August 30th to

September 2nd, when he hosts the Greater Bos-

ton Vintage Toy Buying Show at two locations:

• Friday, August 30, and Saturday, August 31,
  at Courtyard Marriott, 240 Mishawum Road in
  Woburn


• Sunday, September 1, and Monday, Septem-
  ber 2, at Courtyard Marriott, 64 University Ave.
  in Westwood
  Hours each day are 9:30 am to 5 pm.
  Now recognized nationwide as “America’s
  Toy Scout”, he’s set to create a TV pilot for his
  very own show under that name. It certainly
  won’t be his first rodeo in the world of broad-

cast, having already come to the public eye on

the History Channel’s hit show “Pawn Stars” as

an expert on everything Disney related, includ-

ing the themeparks. Joel says it is an extreme

honor to be the Disney expert on the show

and it is a blast working with Rick, Corey and

Chumlee. If you visit Las Vegas, Rick just built

a new “Pawn Plaza” next door to the pawn shop

and he has a new gallery featuring some of his

most treasured finds, and his new restaurant,

“Rick’s Rollin Smoke BBQ & Tavern,” Chum-

lee has a candy shop with just about every treat

you could imagine, and they also have behind-

the-scenes tours, so make sure to visit http://www.

gspawn.com for details.

But Magee still loves the one-on-one person-

al interaction of finding old toys and hearing

new stories from their owners. He encourages

everyone to rifle through childhood items in

search of hitting hidden dirt.

Joel is often asked howolddo toys have to

be to have an interest? and the magical answer

is when people reach about the age of 40 they

begin to reminisce about there childhood and

think about getting their old toys back to revisit

their childhood memories. That now puts us to

the 1980s and older. The 90s and newer will

have their day but not quite yet.

Joel does give some important advice. Be

careful not to accidentally wash the dirt off

before you show it to him. Well-intentioned

efforts at cleaning could destroy a valuable

discovery.

“People spray a toy with Windex and the

paint starts dripping off,” he said. “Even if a toy

is covered in grime, I can still appraise it.”

Another piece of advice? The worst way to start

a collection is with items labeled “collectible.”

“That word or ‘limited edition’ items typical-

ly denote something with little potential to rise

in value,” he said. “It’s just a gimmick.”

Magee said that promotional toys can be

among the most valuable to save.

“The best toys to buy are those that are made to

go along with movie or TV promotions,” he said.

“If they become hits, then the toys related to them

willalsobeahitandthevalueswillgoup.”

Of course, if they don’t, they won’t be worth

anything. There is no telling what those old

toys you still have from decades gone by might

be worth – at least not until an expert like Ma-

gee can get a look at them. That’s why he loves

talking to the public and seeing all the items

theybringtohim.

“No matter what news I give them, whether

their find is valuable or worthless,” he said, “I

think people appreciate getting a solid answer

so they can finally resolve that nagging ques-

tion of whether there is any money in that old

cobweb-covered toy box in eternal storage

back home.”

“Overtime,everyonestartedcallingme

‘The Toy Scout’ because I was traveling all

over looking for this stuff, and people began

to ask me to find toys from their youth, too,”

he said. The truth is that Magee collects more

than just toys. He is a keeper of the past.

“For the last 30 years I have been scouting

Americatoreunitepeoplewiththeirchildhood

memories.”

“Pawn Stars” Expert Joel Magee Hunting for ToyTreasures

Here is a sample of what Joel will be looking for:

Pez candy dispensers with no feet, Hotwheels toy cars with red lines on the

wheels, trains, tin wind up toys, slot cars, lunchboxes, Disney & Disneyland,

old advertising signs, battery operated toys, old dolls from the 1950s and older,

all kinds of movie related or super hero

toys from the 1980s and GI Joe, super

hero figures, Star Wars ships and figures,

cowboy cap gun and items, Transformers,

comic books fom the 1970s and older,

Matchbox, Barbie dolls, even old silver

coins 1964 and older.

In fact there are so many old toys that we

can’t name them all, so bring everything

and we will be happy to sort through.

Wait time is very short, averaging just

5 to 10 minutes.

Admission and parking: Free

Any questions? Call America’s Toy Scout,

Joel Magee, 561-628-

ADVERTISEMENT

Joel gives Rick his evaluation in a recent episode of Pawn Stars