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Healthcare Enemy No. 1
Rush Limbaugh offers Democrats an irresistible target as the de facto leader of the Republican Party, but for my money, Rick Scott is the man who best embodies the spirit of the current conservative opposition. The name may not exactly be a household word, or it may ring a faint bell, but Politico recently reported that the millionaire Republican would be heading up Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR), a new group that plans to spend around $20 million to kill President Obama's efforts at healthcare reform.
Having Scott lead the charge against healthcare reform is like tapping Bernie Madoff to campaign against tighter securities regulation. You see, the for-profit hospital chain Scott helped found--the one he ran and built his entire reputation on--was discovered to be in the habit of defrauding the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
This is the man who will be delivering what Politico called the "pro-free-market message."
A Texas lawyer who shared a business partner with George W. Bush, Scott started his health company, Columbia Hospital Corporation, in 1987. Its growth was meteoric, expanding from just a few hospitals to more than 1,000 facilities in thirty-eight states and three other countries in 1997. As his firm gobbled up chains, like the Frist family's Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), it became the largest for-profit hospital chain in the country. By 1994, Columbia/HCA was one of the forty largest corporations in America, and Scott had acquired a reputation as the Gordon Gecko of the healthcare world. "Whose patients are you stealing?" he would ask employees at his newly acquired hospitals.
He promised to put nonprofit hospitals--which he insisted on referring to as "nontaxpaying" hospitals--out of business and touted his company's single-minded pursuit of profit as a model for the nation's entire healthcare system. "What's happening in Washington is not healthcare reform," he told the New York Times in 1994. "Healthcare reform is happening in the marketplace."
The press portrayed Scott as a guru to be admired and feared, "a private capitalist dictator," in the words of one Princeton health economist. "Probably the lowest body fat of anybody I've been in business with," his partner told the Times.
"Other hospitals were intimidated," recalls John Schilling, who worked for Columbia/HCA in the 1990s. Scott was "like the bully that would come into town and if you didn't sell to him or partner with him, he would open up shop across the street from you and put you out of business."
Not long after joining the company in 1993 as the supervisor of reimbursement for the Fort Myers, Florida, office, Schilling noticed things weren't quite kosher. "They were looking for ways to maximize reimbursement...which ultimately would improve the bottom line."
One way they did this was to fudge the costs on their Medicare expense reports. They were "basically keeping two sets of books," says Schilling. The company would maintain an internal expense report, what it called a "reserve" report, which accurately tallied its expenses. "And then they would have a second report, which...they would file with the government, which was more aggressive." That report would "include inflated costs and expenses they knew weren't allowable or reimbursable. The one they filed with government might claim $5 million and the reserve would claim $4.5." Columbia/HCA would pocket the difference.
It wasn't just happening in Florida, and it wasn't just fraudulent Medicare expense reports. Around the country, dozens of whistle-blowers like Schilling stepped forward to file lawsuits under the False Claims Act, charging the company with sundry forms of chicanery: kickbacks to doctors in exchange for referrals, illegal deals with homecare agencies and filing false data about the use of hospital space.
By 1997 the FBI was investigating Columbia/HCA. Days after agents raided company facilities armed with search warrants, Scott was forced to resign. In 2000 the company pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to pay the government $840 million. Other civil settlements would follow, ultimately totaling a staggering $1.7 billion, making it the largest fraud case in American history.
(Scott was never criminally charged and continues to deny wrongdoing. His spokesperson did not respond to repeated interview requests.)
But in Washington there's no such thing as permanent disgrace, and as the healthcare debate heats up, Scott has established himself as a go-to source for reporters looking to hear from the opposition. He's been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. He's been on Fox, of course, railing against President Obama's efforts to control healthcare costs. He appeared on CNN, where (as Media Matters noted) host Jessica Yellin never saw fit to notify viewers that the man she introduced as running "a media campaign to limit government's role in the healthcare system" once ran a company that profited mightily from ripping off that government.
Indeed, if there's one thing that's most galling about Scott's antigovernment jihad--and most emblematic--it's that for all his John Galt bluster, he made his fortune (which, yes, he still has) in no small part thanks to steady contract fees from the Great Society's entitlement programs.
Congressman Pete Stark, a veteran of the last bruising round of fighting over healthcare reform, remembers Scott all too well. Stark recently sent his colleagues a letter hoping to refresh their memories. Calling Scott a "swindler," the letter said, "If he is the conservative spokesperson against healthcare reform, there is no debate."
23 Comments so far
Show All"...in Washington there's no such thing as permanent disgrace..."
Or shame, or ethics, or truthfulness, or honor, or hope.
"...in Washington there's no such thing as permanent disgrace..."
Or shame, or ethics, or truthfulness, or honor, or hope."
That's for sure.
Amazingly, "progressives" like Hayes are still obsessed with Republicans--instead of going with the strength of their own supposed convictions.
Hey pal, you have to know your enemy. That means NAMES of people actually sabotaging and undermining logical, stand on their own merits through clever PR and lots of money. One of the ways the saboteurs do this is by attacking anyone who points squarely at the leaders of the misinformation campaign. Sell it to someone else, pal.
"Hey pal, you have to know your enemy. That means NAMES of people actually sabotaging and undermining..."
That's right. When it comes to taking the profit-motive out of healthcare the number one enemy is...
Max Baucus. (D)
The number two enemy are the other spineless O'Dems who care more about the money they get from special interests than they do about people.
Your pal,
Greg
Much of capitalism, particularly corporate capitalism, is parasitism, but nowhere in the entire corporate world is there a more perfect example of pure parasitism than in private health insurance (though the bankers sure make an effort). Private health insurance offers absolutely nothing of value, produces nothing of worth, and yet sucks billions of dollars out of Americans' pockets every year. The private health insurers just shuffle papers and funds around, and it all is for the only purpose, and with the only result, of siphoning money into their own pockets. They try to justify their existence with the claim that they help efficiently allocate health care resources, but from what we have seen of the results, a random number generator could do just as well.
But these parasites have their teeth firmly and deeply into the American body politic, and it will take tremendous effort to pry them off. Maybe Americans must be made to understand that there is nothing worse than government bureaucracy except for private corporate bureaucracy.
kivals wrote, "Maybe Americans must be made to understand that there is nothing worse than government bureaucracy except for private corporate bureaucracy."
From this article, it appears that the government intervention in the market via the Medicare bureaucracy created the opportunity for the fraud committed by the Columbia/HCA bureaucracy. Fortunately, it was later prosecuted by another federal bureaucracy, the FBI. But asking politicians to expand the Medicare bureaucracy under some of the single payer health care proposals would only expand the opportunity for the private sector to bilk the government.
For example, instead of private health insurance defrauding the government, what would prevent the private builder of the hospital from tacking on 10% to their bids for government orders? Or 90% to cover all the red tape that the government bureaucracy requires as regards hiring decisions and wage controls? And even if the government draws a million regulatory lines in the sand, what happens to the Medicare castle when the tide comes in and there's no paper money left to pay for all that you told people to rely on the government for?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2008778232_health24.html
From link:
"Joblessness and slower wage growth will cause a dip in payroll tax revenues that could push the insolvency date for Medicare's hospital insurance fund from 2019 to 2016, said Richard Foster, of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."
Doesn't every government program, and every private corporation through its operations, create the opportunities for fraud? Fraud can be minimized through regulation, investigation, and prosecution, but it can never be completely eliminated from any human enterprise where money is involved.
The Europeans seem to have found ways to design efficient government-run health care systems, far outperforming the US in health care outcomes while spending much less than half as much per capita on health care. So if government-run health care in the US cannot ever be efficient like that in Europe, and the private health care system is pathetic by comparison, does that not mean that there is something fundamentally flawed with the US political/economic system? Should we consider scrapping the entire US political/economic system if it cannot do something as fundamental as health care correctly?
Kivals you make some good points.
One of the problems as I see it, even in reading these very Progressive boards, is the number of Americans who refuse to look elsewhere for examples.
It is as if the rest of the world does not exist and or it that old "America is exceptional" argument and no other examples can apply.
One of the simpler examples is 'what of all the job losses if we shut down for profit health insurance" not recognizing that Canada went to a Universal health Program without massive job losses.
Or "It will cost me more in taxes" without realizing that the TAX BURDEN of the American worker related to health care ( medicaid, medicare etc) that they already fund publicly is equal to the tax burden each Canadian carries.
The argument about having waiting lists fails to understand that In Germany and other European Countries waiting lists are shorter then inside the United States of America.
If one insists on continually working inward and claiming "it can only work using our existing system" and that existing system is flawed, one can never resolve the issue.
pk
Thanks for bringing up Canada. I probably should have mentioned it. And it is somewhat fascinating how the millions of capitalism-loving Americans who claim that it is so important to "think outside the box" and that allegedly Americans can do that best, and that Americans have a "can do attitude" that means Americans always get the job done, never seem to want to think outside the box or have a can do attitude when addressing the shortcomings of their political/economic system or even their healthcare system.
So true, so true!
Frankly, not only politically or economically, but even technologically. The WWW was not intented by a brialliant American entrepeneur (like I've heard some free-market fanatics claim) but was invented by scinetists in the Eurpoean government run CERN physics lab.
In my field, civil engineering, EVERY major innovation comes from Europe or Japan - mostly by government or government contracted engineers. The European and Japanese transportations infrastructrue, especially rail and urban transit, is like the Jetsons compared to the backward US.
The US clings to a laughably backward measurement system used nowhere else in the world.
The only way USAns are "Can-do", "ourside the box" or "the best" is in their endless crativity in swindling the worker and consentrating wealth and power at the top.
Speaking of "can-do" the Canadian government designed CANDU power reactor is superior in performance, reliability, and safety to all the ones buily by the US private "enterepeneurs" - GE, Westinghouse, B and W, (TMI's reactor) etc...
It is almost like USAns think different, special, god-given laws of physics apply to them, while the inferior foreigners must follow inferoir versions of Newton's laws.
As far as health care why didn't Obama's little confab last week include health care ministers from Europe, Canada, Japan... the corporate bosses could have all stayed home!
Sorry, but you got me started...
---USAn---
...but from what we have seen of the results, a random number generator could do just as well.
This is very funny, and might be very close to reality.
Just say no to Corporate Health Care.
The conservative mafia is anti-social.
DC could care less about the Health care mess out here. My guess is it will only get worse.
"A Texas lawyer who shared a business partner with George W. Bush, Scott started his health company, Columbia Hospital Corporation, in 1987. Its growth was meteoric, expanding from just a few hospitals to more than 1,000 facilities in thirty-eight states and three other countries in 1997."
Such a juxtaposition as quoted above should have had regulators' hairs standing on end. You cannot expand in that business that fast without cutting all kinds of corners on health care, forcing cost reductions from suppliers and labor (as Wal*Mart allegedly does), overbilling, or all of the above. He may not be in jail but your gut should tell you he should be. Unless you're being overmedicated for ulcers.
-30-
Now we have another Bush involved: Jonathan Bush, Jr. through athenaHealth, cashing in on the electronics record movement that Obama is instituting to make looting more efficient. His group will outsource to India. More American jobs gone. Another hidden revenue stream for the Bushes et al.
Single Payer Health Care
Single Payer Health Care
Single Payer Health Care
Single Payer Health Care...
Hey Obama, what part of those 4 words don't you understand.
Write your congress critters and urge single payer.
http://www.democrats.com/single-payer-petition
At present, healthcare is controled by state bureaucracies and not by the Federal Government.
Why do we assume that vested interests in all fifty state will roll over for national or single payer health? Just because the President or Congress says so.
Most states do not want further mandates from Washington. Everytime Washington
mandates programs, states get screwed.
The state rights problem goes back to the beginning of the republic. Why should this problem go away for universal health care?
Medicare is really a pretty shitty program. Far too many seniors and far too disabled have to buy into Medicare Advantage, rely on Medicaid, buy Medigap or Medicare Supplement Plans or face bankruptcy from high deductibles and co-pays built into Medicare.
And now we want to expand this crappy system to all fifty states. Get real.
State governments are bought to a far greater extent that we realize. Do you really think Rick Perry and friends are going to roll-over in Texas. It's pretty obvious that they won't if they won't even take free money from the stimulus plan.
The health care industry has bought local communities to a far greater extent than we realize. They will not buy into crap from Washington.
We need to wake up and deal with reality before we go up against state and local governments. The biggest opponent to single payer are in our own back yards.
Nice! Thanks for shining a light into the sewers the private-public hijacking of our health care dollars. No matter what system we end up with, it would make sense to start with the corruption. Once you start looking into it, you realize it is vast. Unfortunately, Obama is not willing to take it on. Estimates vary, but the bottom line is that our so-called free market system is costing vastly more than so-called socialized systems while delivering substantially less benefit to those paying for it. Now why is that?
Obama, electronic outsourcing to India won't fix the corruption in healthcare or unemployment.
Yes kivals, the health insurance industry, tho there is stiff competition, continually comes out on top in the race for number 1 in parasitism; true bloodsuckers. It needs to be scraped off of our society's body with SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE!
As if most of us who actually work in healthcare, didn't know this was happening?! People like Mr. Shilling and Scott are the reason, healthcare has become what it is; unreliable, insensitive, paperwork driven, short-sighted, exhausting, infuriating and too expensive for one to afford without group prices.
As a clinican, I find the current work environment almost hostile to all who come for treatment. Most clinicans are overworked, underpaid, under-appreciated and looking for a way out; that's why so many of us change jobs frequently.
The OMG profit motive and way too much government paperwork, is the ruination of the caring professions and the settings in which we work. I think anyone who benefited from fraud, should be forced to pay back the money that was stolen.
We need a new sytem in this country; one that doesn't reward those at the top with money they didn't earn and money that comes from denying care to those who actually paid for the care. We need to get rid of private insurance companies which serve no one, except upper management and stockholders. Getting rich off of the misery of others is sick and depraved.
DeColores,
Rockerbabe1
You only need to look into the past of Rick Scott to know what kind of creature he is.
Obviously a sociopath that would stop at nothing to stay on the top.
You would think coming from a poor background he would have some compassion
for unfortunate people, instead he looks at them with contempt. One more example
of how money can help distort the truth. Could he just be happy enjoying his money, no he rather go around a make as much damage as he can.
What a miserable jerk!