HealthSouth audit finds up to $4.6 billion in fraud

Modern Healthcare ^ | 1-21-04 | Bones McCoy

[bonesmccoy]

A forensic audit revealed that accounting fraud at HealthSouth Corp., Birmingham, Ala., totaled $3.8 billion to $4.6 billion, the company said, with the high end representing nearly $2 billion more than alleged last March. Officials with the firm managing HealthSouth, Alvarez & Marsal, said they expect to produce a cleaned-up balance sheet and install a new chief executive officer and permanent management team in the second quarter. In addition, the company is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the CMS to reach a global settlement covering potential liabilities, the officials said during a meeting Tuesday with company stakeholders. HealthSouth should remain financially viable, with projected 2004 revenue of nearly $4 billion, they said. The forensic audit identified $2.5 billion in fraudulent accounting entries from 1996 to 2002, $500 million in incorrect accounting for goodwill and other items involved in acquisitions from 1994 to 1999, and $800 million to $1.6 billion in "aggressive accounting" from 1992 to March 2003. -- by Julie Piotrowski

[bonesmccoy]

Let's juxtapose this right... One audit at ONE healthcare company and we find 3.8-4.6 BILLION in faudulent accounting????

That's a gap of 800 million dollars!

That error gap is the same as the ENTIRE Mars Exploration Rover PROGRAM in TOTAL!

Any questions why we've got 250 BILLION per year in MediCare expenditures???

[the invisib1e hand]

Fraud?! In the healthcare industry? Get out.

[bonesmccoy]

Clinton sucks... she made the fraud easier with her commitment to managed care and risk pooling.

The way to bust this is to make doctors compete for cash.

[Dog Gone]

by Julie Piotrowski

Tell Julie to format, and only put her stories in Breaking News if they're exciting.

[FormerACLUmember]

For the last 5 years, the delightful Health South CEO sued chat rooms and anybody posting on the Internet questioning his magnificent accounting practices.

Needless to say he succeeded with the help of his lawyer accomplices in keeping the Health South money machine humming right along for many years of creative finances.

[bonesmccoy]

ping on this story!

[Jim Noble]

Well, I know more about this than I can post-but suffice it to say, I think the feds are on the right track

[Eccl 10:2]

"Clinton sucks... she made the fraud easier with her commitment to managed care and risk pooling. "


Hillary Rodham Clinton - HRC

Care to venture a guess what the ticker symbol of HealthSouth used to be before they de-listed from the NYSE?
It's now HLSH, but it used to be...

[bonesmccoy]

LOL

[bonesmccoy]

it was HRC?

[CyberAnt]

HealthSouth is so bad .. I reported them to my insurance carrier when they tried to bill my insurance for a named drug instead of the generic HealthSouth had issued to me.

[enots]

Do you know if Health South was associated with Columbia Medical?

[Mamzelle]

The docs are irrelevant. Everyone thinks "doctor bills" when they should be thinking "hospitalization bills." This mis-think is part of the cost overruns. Even complicated surgery billing by one highly-paid doc for one big operation won't begin to compete with the costs the hospital will run to support the procedure. Technicians, building, ***equipment***, administration, nursing...

Infrastructure.

[the invisib1e hand]

The way to bust this is to make doctors compete for cash.

exactly.

the market for medical services is totally distorted. if supply and demand were allowed to operate freely (with limited, reasonable standards regulation) then the cost of care would have to be radically reduced...there's no shortage of doctors anywhere in this country.

the market would then be allowed to price the risk of malpractice and the cost of care would be adjusted by the rational participants accordingly. Now, however, the market is hopelessly distorted by insurance companies and government interference, amounting in what could be called welfare for medical students, at the expense of taxpayers who are and are not currently users of their services.

but of course I'm preaching to the choir...