(Reprint of Previous Blogpost)
After seeing an ad on health care reform sponsored by Conservatives for Patient's Rights, I heard a news commentator allude to misconduct by Rick Scott, the spokesman in the ad. I wondered "who is this guy" and wanted to know more about Rick Scott. Here's what I found.
Rick Scott made millions with a company that defrauded the government and the American people for profit. The hospital corporation pleaded guilty to a litany of criminal and civil charges including lying to the government about how sick patients were so they could collect larger fees. In his May 11, 2009 post, Mike Hall says, "If he’s going to grant interviews and plaster himself all over the airwaves as the face of anti-reform, we believe everyone has the right to know exactly where he’s coming from." I heartily agree with Mike.
Jason Rosenbaum's April 1, 2009 post in The Now! Blog wrote the following:
Rick Scott, the Bernie Madoff of health care, has an explanation for why under his watch his health care company had to pay $1.7 billion in fines, the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history: "Everybody was doing it."
Rick Scott was in charge of HCA/Columbia during the time the company was keeping two sets of books. He was bought out for millions (by Bill Frist!) before the company was charged with fraud, escaping criminal charges himself. And now he’s using that ill-gotten money and his corrupt Washington connections to fight health care reform.
It doesn’t get much dirtier than that.
Earlier this year, Scott, who is a major donor to the Republican Party, according the Washington newspaper Politico, founded the group Conservatives for Patients’ Rights. That group is airing the ads on national cable outlets like CNN and Fox attacking Obama’s health care proposals with false claims and recycled scare tactics.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that Scott is using $5 million of his own money, plus another $15 million from donors he refuses to name, to finance the “swift boating” of President Obama’s health care reform initiatives. The Post reports that PRC Public Relations, the group that slimed Kerry’s Vietnam War record, is coordinating the campaign.
I turned up more interesting information as I researched Rick Scott. Here's are some bits and pieces:
After his forced departure from Columbia/HCA in 1997, Scott launched Richard L. Scott Investments, based in Naples, Florida, which has stakes in health care, manufacturing and technology companies.
Between 1998 and 2001, Scott purchased 50% of CyberGuard Corporation for approximately $10 million. In 2006, CyberGuard was sold to Secure Computing for over $300 million.
In the 1990s, Scott was a partner of George W. Bush in ownership of the Texas Rangers.
Scott has recently been linked to a company which both Iran and Saudi Arabia use to enforce internet censorship. Scott sits on the board of Secure Computing. Media Matters released a document detailing Scott's links to the internet monitoring company, which has been used by these regimes in order to suppress internet communication. Reporters Without Borders, in 2001, produced a report which stated: "According to Secure Computing, this software makes it possible to block millions of websites in over 60 categories. It is therefore easy for the Iranian government to block websites for political reasons."
Obviously, Rick Scott knows how to make money and is well connected, one of the good old boys.
If you want to know more about the rise of Rick Scott in health care and how his health care program worked, read Joe Fowler's article, "Rick Scott and the Columbia/HCA Healthcare System: Icon of Greed or Prophet of True Reform?". The article appeared in the Healthcare Forum Journal, March-April 1995, Vol. 38 #2.
I think I can make up my own mind about President Obama Health Care Reform Initiatives without Rick Scott's advice. How about you?
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