--V--
USA TODAY
By Julie Appleby
December 18, 2002
HCA, the largest hospital chain, said Wednesday that it has agreed to pay $648.5 million to settle final charges in a long-running federal investigation.
Including previous civil and criminal settlements, reached in 2000, the total paid by HCA will hit about $1.7 billion, by far the largest health fraud settlement in history, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Tenet, the No. 2 hospital chain, also is under government scrutiny over allegations that it raised charges to take advantage of a loophole in Medicare law and garner higher-than-average payments.
The HCA investigation grew out of lawsuits filed by former employees, starting in 1993, and focused on whether the company improperly billed Medicare for hundreds of millions of dollars.
During the investigation, HCA was acquired by Columbia Healthcare and continued its rapid expansion under founder Richard Scott. He resigned in 1997 amid mounting evidence that HCA had kept two sets of books, one to show the government and one with actual expenses listed. Thomas Frist — a co-founder of HCA and brother of Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. — replaced Scott and remains on the board.
Under the agreement, HCA must pay the government $631 million, plus interest, and pay $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies. As previously announced, HCA also has to pay $250 million to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims.
HCA said it expects to record a charge of $445 million in the fourth quarter to cover settlement costs. It also expects to record an additional charge to cover legal fees brought by attorneys for the whistle-blowers. "We are pleased to have successfully negotiated a settlement," said Jack Bovender Jr., HCA's chief executive officer.
Critics of the settlement say HCA executives involved in the scandal deserved jail time. "When people engage in crimes this large, it is not enough to just settle for large amounts of money," says Sidney Wolfe of advocacy group Public Citizen. "Examples need to be set, and people need to go to jail."
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. :(
--V--When will the Republicans ever learn to stick together? Sometimes I am ashamed to be a Republican because we have some really STUPID Republicans who can't keep their mouth shut.
This is an attack piece given the current situation.
Two points. (1) The exception for rape/incest is the same position as Ronald Reagan. It is the position of the Republican Party. It doesn't approve of abortion. It simply is a position that says "no legal action" should be taken against people who receive abortions for those reasons. I would add "life of mother" to that list. I don't think those are the best decisions. But, I also don't think "legal action" should be taken against those who receive abortions for those reasons. At the same time, these are rare cases.
(2) Given the above, it only makes sense that one cannot support a law that TOTALLY PROHIBITS abortion, if one desires to keep rape/incest/life of mother decriminalized. The law would have to include the exceptions. I would support a law that prohibited abortion except in those cases.
NEARLY Everyone I've ever talked to says that a woman who has an abortion after a violent rape should be VIEWED differently than a woman who has an abortion just on a whim. I agree with that.
As far as the hospitals are concerned, there's no way that Frist can get away from this since his family owns HCA. Even if he sells his stock, he's still an heir. He can't win.
Remember, he's a heart/lung transplant surgeon. He's not in the gyn area at all.
Washington, Jefferson and Jackson owned slaves.
The Republican parties birthday gift to the Lord: more abortions.
Okay, so the current ML, Trent Lott, makes a statement that is debatable as to whether it is premised upon a racial bias, and a challenger who has made a successful living by owning a business that kills children by the thousands for profit.
If Bush is backing this murderer, I'm changing my party affiliation immediately because the next thing that will go is the anti-abortion plank of the GOP.
Bush's pandering has led to his wholesale support for abortion.
By the way, the rumors of my demise were apparently premature.
Pinging...
EARTH TO TERRY: ALL HOSPITALS EXCEPT CATHOLIC ONES PERFORM ABORTIONS!!!! I DON'T LIKE IT EITHER, BUT STOP MAKING IT SOUND LIKE COLUMBIA HCA WAS UNIQUE!!!
Terry Jeffery sounds no different than the anti-God FemiNazis where the measure of any judge or politician comes down to exactly one issue: abortion.
My guess would be that abortions are probably performed from time to time in all, or at least most, hospitals in this country.