Steve M. asks a question about HoagieGate:
Do we not have Medicare and Medicaid fraud in this country? Do you think we might have a bit more Medicare and Medicaid fraud if we applied the same level of scrutiny to providers’ records that we have for ordering a sandwich at a convenience store?
The biggest Medicare fraudster in this country’s history is currently the governor of Florida.
In 1997, Rick Scott was implicated in the biggest Medicare fraud case in US history, stepping down as CEO of Columbia/HCA after the hospital giant was fined $1.7 billion and found guilty of swindling the government. As Florida’s new governor, Scott is now trying to kill off an anti-fraud database that would track the fraudulent distribution of addictive prescription drugs in Florida, over the protestations of law enforcement officials, Republican state lawmakers, and federal drug policy officials.
Without consulting state lawmakers, Scott snuck a repeal of the database in his budget this year, despite the fact that it will cost Florida no money.
Now, most of you have never been to a WaWa. Here is how it works. They have several touchscreens lined up in front of the deli. You go in and tell the computer that you want a sandwich that’s four or six or eight inches long. Then you tell it that you want a certain kind of turkey with a certain kind of cheese, a little mayo or a lot, some vinegar, some onions, maybe some lettuce and tomato, hot or sweet peppers, maybe extra meat or bacon. Do you want your bread toasted? When you’re done making your choices, you get a receipt that you are supposed to take to the register. You pay for your hoagie and then they stamp your receipt. You bring your receipt back to the deli and they give you your sandwich.
The thing is, you don’t really have to pay. No one checks for the stamp on your receipt. If you want to steal the sandwich, no one is going to stop you. Of course, the whole store is under surveillance, so if you make a habit of stealing their sandwiches you will eventually be arrested. And then you’ll pay a fine, just like Rick Scott’s company had to pay after they defrauded the government. Except, this is how that works for rich Republicans.
Two whistleblowers say the new front-runner in the Republican race for governor is lying when he says he did not know about fraud in his former company, the Columbia/HCA hospital chain.
In July 1997, FBI agents raided Columbia/HCA accounting offices in seven states, including Florida. Within days, Columbia’s board of directors ousted Scott, but gave him a nearly $10 million severance package, including stock shares worth $300 million and a $1 million a year consulting contract.
The company wound up paying more than $1.7 billion for defrauding the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs.
See? It’s as if Rick Scott got caught stealing sandwiches from WaWa for his co-workers and then got fired. But he enjoyed a severance package worth well in excess of $300 million. Then he used that money to become the governor of your state and introduced a bill to eliminate cameras in convenience stores.
That’s the kind of America Mitt Romney wants to create.
