Florida's republican governer elect, a real winner....

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Rick Scott was CEO of the Columbia/HCA for profit hospital franchise from 1988 through 1997 when he was forced to resign due to being investigated for the biggest case of healthcare fraud in US history.

On March 19, 1997, investigators from the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services served search warrants at Columbia/HCA facilities in El Paso and on dozens of doctors with suspected ties to the company.

Following the raids, the Columbia/HCA board of directors forced Scott to resign as Chairman and CEO. He was paid $9.88 million in a settlement. He also left owning 10 million shares of stock worth over $350 million.

In 1999, Columbia/HCA changed its name back to HCA, Inc.

In settlements reached in 2000 and 2002, Columbia/HCA plead guilty to 14 felonies and agreed to a $600+ million fine in the largest fraud settlement in US history. Columbia/HCA admitted systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about use of hospital space. They also admitted fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. They filed false cost reports, fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers, and paid kickbacks in the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients. In addition, they gave doctors "loans" never intending to be repaid, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies.

In late 2002, HCA agreed to pay the U.S. government $631 million, plus interest, and pay $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies, in addition to $250 million paid up to that point to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims. In all, civil law suits cost HCA more than $2 billion to settle, by far the largest fraud settlement in US history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott

This is the republican philosophy of healthcare capitalism. This guy made off with millions, illegally ripped from taxpayers and stolen off the backs of the sick in order to pay doctors illegal kickbacks... now he will be the governor of Florida.

Then this social darwinist con-artist son-of-a-bitch also believes, along with his tea-party supporters, in punishing the unemployed for their "laziness" by allowing unemployment benefits to expire.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheYoungTurks#p/u/55/nMyenyeYx1A

How in hell does someone like this win an election for Governor? What is wrong with Floridians these days?

A relatively large portion of Florida is rural, so they vote Republican. There is a strong evangelical crowd in North Florida (which is still a part of the American South) and they vote Republican. And the Cuban-Americans have always voted Republican ever since JFK and the Bay of Pigs incident.

Didn't Sink have some issues of her own?

That's why we need to get rid of the corrupt two party stranglehold.

With what do you replace it?

ruveyn

This is a state where people with felony convictions are disenfranchised, but that doesn't stop a criminal from taking over the governor's mansion. Yes, he's a criminal, despite the failure of the law to be properly enforced against him.

Was he convicted of a felony. If so, what was the charge and where and when was he convicted.

ruveyn

http://www.forbes.com/2000/12/15/1215disaster.html

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2003/June/03_civ_386.htm

http://politifact.com/florida/statements/2010/may/20/alex-sink/rick-scott-healthcare-ceo-faces-questions-a/

Rick Scott was immediately forced to resign from his position as CEO of Columbia/HCA as soon as the investigation began in 1997. In 2002 the company eventually plead guilty to at least 14 felonies which took place during the time in which Scott was CEO (1988-1997). Several mid-level executives were convicted of crimes involving medicare fraud. Somehow Scott got off since he left the company.

I asked if Rick Scott was convicted of a felony. Was he or wasn't he. Just because the "company" pled guilty (meaning an artificial person confessed to a crime) does not equate to a personal felony conviction. So is Rick Scott a convicted felon, or not?

ruveyn

I never said he was personally convicted. The fact that he was never personally charged with anything criminal doesn't morally exonerate him. Whether or not he was personally aware of it at the time it was occuring doesn't change the fact that he profited from the fraud. It's not as if there was any altruistic intent. Giving doctors kickbacks with taxpayer money doesn't benefit patients in any way. It was purely about making money which demonstrates the conflict of interest when you have profiteers responsible for providing healthcare.

Also, corporations operates in top-down fashion. If a problem is systemic within a company (as it was shown to be in the investigation) rather than just a "bad apple" or two in middle management, it's likely that the source was a dysfunctional upper management, which the CEO is responsible for.

You can argue that he is morally corrupt all you want, if he hasn't broke a law its irrelevant.

Being a former CEO of a company that stole taxpayer money is pretty relevant when you're running for a position as powerful as governor of the state of Florida. Why should people trust him to be a responsible leader when he failed so miserably to be responsible as a CEO? This scandal is a heck of a lot more relevant than the far-fetched nonsense Inuyasha regurgitates.

It might have been relevant at election time but what can be done about it now?

Reality is a third party is precisely what the Democrats want because it will guarentee they have an iron grip on power because it would divide the opposition.

More specifically, the Democrats would be happy to see the Tea Party (or a similar group) become a third party as long as it's a right-wing party. By the same token, the Republicans would love to see the Greens, Socialists, or some other leftist party get big enough to seriously cut into the Democratic voter base.

A political party is largely a machine for collecting votes and power. That goes for both of the big ones. They are not, organizationally, significantly different.

I actually know a man who is friends with Rick Scott. This man also owns hospitals, has 2 waterfront houses in one of the more expensive neighborhoods in the county. This neighborhood also votes republican (of course, every house costs over $1,000,000).

The s**t about him getting in trouble with the law is kinda ret*d. You can't run a business without breaking some rules and the bigger the business the more severe the breaks. If Bill Gates or Steve Jobs became governor of some state people would rant non-stop about copyrights and monopolizing the market. Think of all the big companies that might potentially be bribing government investigators and the like to keep their mouths shut about their wrongdoing, think about all the small businesses involved in money laundering.

I don't give a rats ass how much money he made for himself IF he can turn the Florida economy around. Our unemployment is around 11% and we don't need more unemployment compensation, we need jobs. I don't get unemployment cause I haven't had a job, I met a guy who worked his ass off for years and just lost his job and is happy to sit back and collect unemployment and I don't blame him, if I was in his shoes I'd be collecting that s**t and vacationing till it ran out. However, if everyone could have a job they liked making money they couldn't complain about why would we need unemployment? That should be the goal of a successful government.

Don't get me wrong I don't particularly like Republicans, health-care, Rick or anything. He's just something Florida has to accept because it voted for him and I'll just hope things get better.

edit: also

Last edited by Pistonhead on 03 Jan 2011, 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.