Posted on 12/19/2002 10:26:29 PM PST by The Old Hoosier
| Frist a Major Shareholder in Reputed For-Profit Abortion Provider By Terence P. Jeffrey
Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.), reportedly the White House choice to succeed Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) as Senate majority leader, is a major shareholder in HCA, a for-profit hospital chain founded by his father and brother. HCA reportedly provides abortions to its customers. So now Republicans face this question: If it is disqualifying for their Senate leader to make offensive remarks interpreted as endorsing an immoral policy that denied African-Americans equal rights, is it also disqualifying for their Senate leader to make money from a hospital chain that denies unborn babies the right to life? Frist has deposited his major stockholdings in a "blind trust" chartered Dec. 28, 2000. A schedule of the original assets in this trust filed with the Senate showed holdings in 16 companies. Frist reported the value of these assets, as per Senate rules, within broad ranges (e.g. $1,001-$15,001). If the lowest possible value is assigned to each holding, Frist at that time had invested a minimum of $566,015 in 15 other companies, while investing at least $5,000,001 in HCA. That would mean that approximately 89% of his holdings were in this company. Furthermore, on its face, the trust agreement appears structured to allow the administrators to maintain this heavy concentration in HCA stock. It also specifically instructs the administrators to inform Frist if they divest entirely from any holding, including HCA. And, finally, it gives Frist the power to directly order the administrators to divest from HCA or any other holding that Frist determines "creates a conflict of interest or the appearance thereof." HCA does not trumpet its reported involvement with abortion. But, in April, Catholic Financial Services Corporation (CFSC), a mutual fund company, announced that it was starting an S&P 500 Index Fund that would "exclude companies on the abortion issue"—and that HCA was one of only six companies on the index that would be excluded on these grounds. A spokesman for the mutual fund explained to me last week that the company excludes hospital chains that perform abortions and pharmaceutical companies that deal in drugs that induce abortion. On December 18 and 19, I placed several calls to HCA corporate spokesman Jeff Prescott, to ask him directly whether abortions were performed in HCA facilities, or whether the company refuted CFSC’s determination that they were. I left him voice messages to this effect, and repeatedly told his secretary my questions. At 5:00 p.m. on the 19th, as press time approached, the secretary left me lingering on hold with no answer. When I hung up and called back, I got Prescott’s voice mail again and left him one last message. He never returned my call. I also spoke with Sen. Frist’s spokesman, Nick Smith. I explained to Smith my understanding that the terms of Frist’s "blind" trust allowed the administrators to maintain a heavy concentration in HCA, while allowing Frist to order the sale of this stock, and while also compelling the administrators to inform Frist if they divested entirely from HCA or any other holding. I cited the specific passages in the trust to this effect. I also asked Smith to clarify Frist’s position on abortion—which has confounded pro-lifers over the years—and why Frist would not divest, since he apparently could, from a company that reportedly performs abortions. When Frist first ran for the Senate in 1994, the Nashville Banner reported that he "frequently" said he "does not believe abortion should be outlawed." In a May 1994 radio interview, the Banner reported, Frist said, "It’s a very private decision." One of Frist’s Republican primary rivals, Steve Wilson, the Banner said, "demanded that Frist sell his millions of dollars in stock in the Hospital Corporation of America [HCA], which Frist’s family founded. Some of the hospitals in the chain perform abortions." Tennessee Right to Life PAC Director Sherry Holden, however, told the Banner that Frist had told her organization he was pro-life. "He said he’s against abortion, period—no exceptions, except rape and incest," said Holden. Yet, an Oct. 10, 1994, Memphis Commercial Appeal report on a debate between Frist and incumbent Sen. Jim Sasser (D.-Tenn.) said: "There were some topics on which the candidates agreed—both said they’re personally opposed to abortion but don’t think the government should prohibit abortions." I asked Smith whether Frist wanted to prohibit abortion either by constitutional amendment or by over-turning Roe v. Wade and enacting prohibitions in the states, including Tennessee. Smith responded by faxing me a statement. The White House, pro-life Republican senators, and their grassroots supporters can decide whether it is responsive: "These two issues [the HCA investment and abortion] are separate and distinct," wrote Smith. "On his own accord, by placing his assets in a federally qualified blind trust, Sen. Frist took a step above and beyond to ensure there is no conflict of interest," wrote Smith. "He believes this was the proper and responsible thing to do. He has never been employed by, or served on the board of, HCA or any of its hospitals. "As a U.S. senator who acts on public policy each and every day, his record on abortion is clear," Smith continued. "He is opposed to abortion except in the instances of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is threatened. He is opposed to federal funding of abortion. And in the Senate, he led the fight against partial-birth abortion." His Senate website includes a statement saying, "No one can deny the potential human cloning holds for increased scientific understanding. But . . . I am unable to find a compelling justification for allowing human cloning today." As Bill Clinton might say, that doesn’t rule out tomorrow—when he may be Senate majority leader. |
The abortionists are always trying hard to get direct payments and funding though. They're looking for legitimacy, something they don't have now. The entire practice rests on the lies and BS that flowed out of the mouths of a bunch of liberals in a courtroom. Their arguements and claims are all bogus and they know it.
Some of these rightwing PC ninnies need to figure out what's really important and stop with the peripheral stuff.
And to think--I was considering subscribing to Human Events. :(
Don't preach to us; you're sinning right here. But I guess because it's abortion, it's fine to sin and judge people.
You are ignorant.
I value human life more than any of you santimonious armchair "Christians" do.
They care about life, just not a mother's life.
You don't care about mothers. If a mother is raped or a victim or incest or her life is in danger, you STILL believe she should carry her child to term, even if it kills her. Don't talk to me about life.
Physician, heal thyself.
when I read these self-serving posts of you one-issue only: abortion people
When folks talk about the Pro-Life Issue, they have a tendency to do it as if they were talking about – oh, I don't know – Taxes or Social Security or Trade and we all know that there are people who have their axes to grind on this thing and that thing and the other things and you kind of pay attention to them because that's their particular schtick and we'll see what happens to it.
And we have a tendency to think of the Pro-Life Cause in that way. Even people who are part of it will sometimes act as if or think as if this is some Special Interest Constituency and therefore we operate in the way that people do in this society when they are pleading a Special Case in which they have an Interest.
All right. If I do nothing else this evening, I hope I'll be able to establish in some little way, that it is not the case. That, in fact, the cause that we gather together here tonight to support is one that is not only vital -- in that we care enough to wish to save the Individual Lives of those infants in the womb – it is one on which depends the Life and Future of our Republic … the Life and Future of our Society.
I don't think that it's at all hard to prove that. The logic is clear. It's simple. It is based upon historic facts that no one denies. And yet, very often today we seem to turn our back on it because, I guess, for a great many people it's more convenient to try to forget who we are than to remember who we are at a time that we would do so to our shame.
The facts are clear. We are a nation founded on a clear and simple premise. The fact that it is clear and simple, however, doesn't mean that it was easy to arrive at … easy to perceive … easy to apply to human circumstances and affairs. It was not.
And, in fact, in all the thousands of years of human history before this nation was founded, this particular insight had certainly been around but it had never been expressed in a form that actually led to and transformed political institutions and society.
But we are different. And in our case--I believe very much by the providence of God Almighty—we live in a country where this special insight was, in fact, applied in a way that has born great and so far lasting Truth. And the insight is quite simple. We start with the recognition that there is, in fact a Creator God. [We then] understand that that Creator takes an interest in human affairs, in human justice and is, in fact, the foundation -- by His Will -- of the right understanding of human justice and social affairs.
And that understanding is such that each and every human being stands in the sight of that Creator God Almighty equal to every other human being in their moral worth and dignity. An equality that is not based upon human power or human assertion, upon human constitutions or human attitudes and judgment but instead rests upon the will of our Almighty God. Determined by His hand, His rules, by His Choice and not our own.
America wasn't founded on some abstract notion of what human power can do and so forth. No. It was founded on the notion that every human, regardless of their station, regardless of their background, regardless of their education, their intelligence, their riches, their poverty … that every human being has a worth, has a dignity that must be respected by every human power and that dignity comes from the hand of Almighty God.If there is no God, if there is no hand, then there is no dignity … there can be no freedom.
We do not, therefore, come together here today -- just as some might people might think –because we have our particular little cause that we care about. That's something the pro-abortion people often like to say … "Well why do you care so much about that mass of tissue in the womb?" and so forth and so on. "You're just some other Special Interest" or "your Special Interest and this emotional obsession you have with fetuses" and all {…} stuff like that and so on. ...
And it won't be you who decides whether my views or wrong or right, thank goodness.
... each and every human being stands in the sight of that Creator God Almighty equal to every other human being in their moral worth and dignity. An equality that is not based upon human power or human assertion, upon human constitutions or human attitudes and judgment but instead rests upon the will of our Almighty God. Determined by His hand, His rules, by His Choice and not our own.
Frist is all over the map when it comes to abortion. He says he wants it legal, he says he's pro-life.
Moreover, he profits from it, making monthly dividends that are probably bigger than my annual salary.
So what's his real position? Does he have one? Doesn't this flip-flopping remind you of someone--Clinton maybe? Do we want another jellyfish as SML?
If Frist becomes majority leader, then mark my words--you will long for the days of Bob Dole.
Hospital company to pay $631 million
Houston Chronicle News Services
Dec. 18, 2002, 11:25PM
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- HCA, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, announced a $631 million settlement Wednesday with Justice Department attorneys that would end the government's nine-year investigation of health care fraud allegations against the company.
The settlement, which requires formal approval by the Justice Department and the courts, would raise the amount of civil fines and criminal penalties the Nashville-based company has paid the government to $1.7 billion over the past few years.
HCA had pleaded guilty previously to defrauding government health care programs.
In the cases included in the settlement agreement, whistle-blowers alleged the company filed false claims and paid kickbacks to doctors so they would refer Medicare and Medicaid patients to its facilities.
James Thompson, a Texas doctor who filed a whistle-blower suit in 1995 alleging kickbacks and Medicare fraud, said the case cost him his health and his practice. He said other doctors ostracized him, so he practiced alone without a day off for three years, suffering a stroke in 1998.
"I said it then, and I'll say it again: Doctors have a duty to protect the health of the community. They protect their patients first, and profits last," said Thompson, who filed the suit in Corpus Christi and lives in Rockport. "I am proud of what I did, and I'd do it again. But I'm sure glad it's over."
However, attorneys representing other whistle-blowers were not ready to sign off on the settlement. The government has not detailed how the money will be split up or how much will go to the whistle-blowers.
"We have a statutory right and obligation to ensure the settlement is fair, adequate and reasonable," said John R. Phillips of Phillips & Cohen, which represented the whistle-blowers in the cost-report case. "Once we have more information, we intend to fully analyze the settlement."
The firm represents James Alderson, former chief financial officer of a Montana hospital run by a company once owned by HCA. He says he was fired for failing to include aggressive claims on a cost report and filed suit in 1993 charging fraud. That is when the Justice Department began examining the allegations.
Stephen Meagher, another attorney for the whistle-blowers, said attorneys were about to take depositions from HCA Chief Executive Officer Jack Bovender and co-founder Thomas Frist Jr. Bovender was scheduled to testify next month and Frist in February, he said.
The settlement also comes with Sen. Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican and Thomas Frist's brother, emerging as a candidate to replace Trent Lott as Senate majority leader.
Under the settlement agreement, HCA would pay the Justice Department $631 million beginning Feb. 3 and the government would end its investigation.
Whistle-blowers like Thompson and Alderson may be entitled to a share of that money.
Previously, HCA agreed to pay $250 million to resolve non-related outstanding Medicare cost report issues with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The company, formerly known as Columbia/HCA, paid $840 million in 2001 to settle other whistle-blower cases and pay criminal fines.
In 1999, two former HCA executives -- Jay Jarrell and Robert Whiteside -- were convicted of conspiring to defraud the government and making false statements in Medicare reimbursement cost reports for a hospital in Port Charlotte, Fla. The convictions were overturned this year on appeal. It was the only case that went to trial.
The Justice Department closed its criminal investigation of HCA executives in July, clearing them to testify in the civil Medicare and Medicaid fraud cases.
The company also said Wednesday it has reached an agreement with attorneys representing states with claims similar to the government's. Under this agreement, HCA will pay $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies.
HCA expects to charge approximately $395 million against earnings after taxes in the fourth quarter of 2002 because of the settlements.
The company also will be obligated by law to pay legal fees of the whistle-blowers' attorneys. The company expects to record a charge for these fees in the fourth quarter of 2002.
"We are pleased to have successfully negotiated a settlement to the remaining two civil issues," said Jack O. Bovender Jr., HCA chairman and CEO.
Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller issued a statement saying, "We have had discussions with HCA about resolving this civil litigation. The staff assigned to this matter has now reached a tentative understanding with HCA for a settlement."
"Until I see the math, I'll remain skeptical," Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who helped rewrite the whistle-blower law, said in a written statement. "This settlement can't be a Christmas gift to HCA and a lump of coal for the taxpayers."
Wall Street liked the news. HCA shares rose 3.4 percent, or $1.39 a share, to close Wednesday at $42.90 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Senate needs more fraud experience. HCA is all cleaned up now. Bring him on in Jethro.
Everyone knows it.
Quit pulling out your personal sorrow as trump card.
Your grief at the loss of your son bears no relation whatsoever to your respect for the "law of the land" that is legal abortion and your perpetual haranging of pro-lifers.
Ours is not some self-interested regard for ourselves or individuals that are known, loved and WANTED by us and whose lives necessarily enrich our own in some personal fashion.
We fight for the unborn, the unwanted, the imperfect, the unconscious and the dying as if -- indeed -- all men were created equal and possessed of human dignity from the moment of conception to natural death.
We've listened to two solid weeks of passionate and over the top rhetoric about Trent Lott and how conservatives and Republicans are segregationists and racists.
Then you come on here and say that its just fine for the next Senate Majority Leader, a fairly conservative Republican, to be profiting from abortions on demand. You really consider that issue to be "peripheral stuff"? You really want to stand by that remark?
Did you have a choice?
"Some of these rightwing PC ninnies need to figure out what's really important and stop with the peripheral stuff."
What's really important? The govm'ts primary reason to exist is to protect rights. The right to life is fundamental. Well if these churlin' don't have a right to life, because their mommies and the rest of their families don't want them and the politicians are primarily interested in satisfiying the big mouths, then you can expect the same crass treatment to be given to all the other responsible citizens. Their too busy making a living in honest enterprise and don't have the inclination, or the power to coerce the resources needed to pull off these large cons.
The man wants to take and spend other peoples money for bike paths and other crap and at the same time he doesn't raise a stink about kids being killed in a business he carries policy weight in? He's after number one, the interests of Mr. Frist. The doesn't care about anyone elses rights unless he senses it will effect his position.
>>Hey Terry,
Why don't you just pick the perfect person to be Senate Majority Leader. Bet you can't because He arose 2000 years ago. What a stretch - no wonder you and Human Events have lost your credibility. Guess you'd prefer someone ultra conservative, huh? Someone who will run Snowe or Chafee or both over to the Dems. If that happens, you will get Tom Thumb running the show again. Can you say no partial birth abortion ban vote? Can you say no conservative judges? Can you say President Hillary Clinton beginning in 2005?
Dr. Bill Frist is a good man, a compassionate man and is the man this nation needs to help run the U.S. Senate for President Bush. He says that he is Pro-Life - his word is good enough for me. Have you checked out his recent voting record re: abortion? Is Bill Frist perfect? No! Is George W. Bush perfect? No! But they are both doing their best with the cards that have been dealt. Both are far better men than their predecessors. With a narrow majority, we have to walk before we can run. You know, like one step at a time?
I, for one, am going to be cheering them on, giving them my full support, praying for their safety and decision making. I see a glass half full, not half empty. Conservatives are on the threshold of making some real gains in the cultural war with liberals. Anyone who doesn't meet your qualifications for perfection is attacked. Sir, you are an assassin! Cornered the market on morality, have we?<<
Flame away if you need, but Terry really pi$$ed me off.
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