Reply #75: Frist's Hospital Co. broke all records in Medicare Fraud, got a sweetheart [View All]

settlement, and Frist went home rich and a free man! Frist is an owner of HCA.
Lott got rehabilitated, so memories are either short, or it was all just political facade.

FROM: 30 U.S. attorneys investigate BILKING BILLIONS, Medicare, Medicaid, Military’s Healthcare
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x877011

Topics:
How is it that $$ BILLIONS $$ of fraud does not put CEOs in jail?
How is it that $$ BILLIONS $$ of fraud cases seem to evaporate or settle for so little?
How were those $$ BILLIONS $$ in lobbying by single industries spent? Where do those bucks STOP?

HCA's "fraud investigation involved 30 U.S. attorneys' offices, 22 FBI field offices, inspectors general from the Health and Human Service Department and the Office of Personnel Management, Defense Department investigators and state fraud units"

SOURCE: John Byrne, "Company run by Frist's brother made $630m deal two days before he announced he would be leader"
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Family_company_of_Senate_leader_made_0929.html

.....

When Advocates Become Regulators
President Bush has installed more than 100 top officials who were once lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they oversee.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0523-02.htm

Thomas A. Scully .... former hospital lobbyist presided over an agency that helped a chain he once represented win a favorable settlement in a Medicare fraud case.

Thomas A. Scully represented the nation's for-profit hospitals as a lobbyist before being hired by the Bush administration in June 2001 to head the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Eight months after Scully arrived at the Medicare and Medicaid agency, it moved to settle final claims involving HCA Inc., a hospital chain that was the biggest member of Scully's former employer, the Federation of American Hospitals. HCA Inc. faced allegations it fraudulently overbilled the government for Medicare cases.

Under the terms agreed to in June 2002 by Scully's agency, HCA would have settled for $250 million. Medicare fraud cases typically are ironed out with Justice Department participation, but Scully agreed to those terms on his own, said John R. Phillips, an attorney who represented whistle-blowers in the case.

"The $250 million was a total sellout by Scully, who totally negotiated it behind Justice's back," Phillips said.

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November 29, 2006
Frist Decides Against ’08 Presidential Bid
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/11/29/frist-decides-against-%e2%80%9908-presidential-bid

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said he has put aside plans to run for the White House in 2008, and instead will return to medicine and the health-care field that helped launch his political career 12 years ago..