Look familiar? His deceased ex-wife was a Siavo.
Posted on 10/25/2007 7:52:37 AM PDT by wagglebee
For the past two years, analysts have been asking how fast-growing WellCare Health Plans of Tampa has been able to make so much money running government health plans for the poor and elderly. Now government investigators may be asking the same thing.
On a rainy Wednesday morning, more than 200 federal and state agents swarmed WellCare's campus on Henderson Road in Tampa, forcing employees onto the sidewalk and into their cars.
Steven Meitzen, 51, who arrived at WellCare about 9:40 a.m. for a job interview, said he was initially told it was a bomb scare. "Later on, I talked to someone who said the FBI had a subpoena and were looking for records," he said.
By midday, the complex's parking garages were half-empty, but federal agents remained busy. They were still milling around WellCare's buildings in the early evening; a Ryder truck was backed up to a loading dock.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa said little about the search, which involved personnel from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Florida attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The search warrant is sealed.
Both federal and state officials, however, said that the investigation should have no impact on delivery of health care to the more than 2.3-million members of WellCare's managed care plans.
The company's customers are about evenly divided between Medicare and Medicaid plans. WellCare is the largest Medicaid provider in Florida, with more than 350,000 members. The company also offers Medicare Advantage plans to seniors in seven states and a stand-alone drug plan nationwide.
The timing of the raid could be detrimental as WellCare is in the midst of convincing seniors to sign up for its 2008 plans.
WellCare issued a release saying that it was cooperating with authorities and that essential services to members would remain uninterrupted. Though its customer service number was working Wednesday, WellCare's Web site was replaced with a notice saying, "We're sorry, but something went wrong. We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly."
The company, which went public in July 2004 at $17 a share, has had a meteoric rise, with its stock more than doubling in the past 12 months. On Wednesday, WellCare's shares dropped $6.77 or 5.5 percent, to $115.50 before trading was halted about 11 a.m. It ended the day down $7.10 at $115.17.
FTN Midwest analyst Peter Costa downgraded his rating on WellCare stock to "sell" from "neutral" on Wednesday, citing the search. Costa said the investigation appeared to be a criminal one.
"Criminal investigations are harder to prove, likely to be more company specific and carry stiffer penalties, including being barred from doing business with the government if it is for fraud, which it most likely is given the departments involved," Costa said in a research note.
Thomas Carroll, analyst with Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore, called the raid "ominous" and downgraded WellCare shares to "sell" from "hold" in a note to clients. Contacts within the company said BlackBerries, computers and files were seized from corporate, marketing and human resources offices, according to Carroll.
Carroll suspects the raid is potentially the result of a lawsuit in which an employee brought a matter to the attention of authorities.
"When the FBI and HHS raid a health care company, the outlook on earnings, legal proceedings and the entire operations of the company can be questioned," Carroll said.
WellCare's business practices have come under increased criticism over the past several months. Last spring, the company said independent sales agents in Georgia enrolled dead people in Medicare plans. In May and June, WellCare representatives appeared along with other insurance executives at hearings in the Senate and House into aggressive Medicare marketing practices. WellCare and six other insurers subsequently agreed to a temporary halt in marketing one type of Medicare plan, while promising to initiate consumer safeguards. In August, however, Medicare cited WellCare once again for violating several provisions of its Medicare contract, including sales practices.
WellCare, which had earnings of $139.2-million in 2006, gets all of its nearly $4-billion in revenues from state or federal governments. Profits come from the difference between the amount received from the government and the amount spent on overhead and medical care for its members.
The company routinely has outperformed its competition; for the quarter ending in June, the company said just 80.8 percent of its revenue was spent on medical claims, down from 82.7 percent a year ago.
WellCare's high margins have had analysts scratching their heads. In April, two Wall Street analysts said Florida in particular was too generous in its Medicaid reimbursement to WellCare. The analysts, with CIBC World Markets and Goldman Sachs & Co., were particularly critical of WellCare's use of a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands for reinsurance, saying it allowed the company to shift money in the form of reinsurance premiums.
WellCare said its reinsurance arrangement had been approved by stateregulators and rejected claims it was overpaid.
Florida Medicaid payments were raised 7.5 percent in July, to an average of $215 per member per month. Cuts of about 1.5 percent could be on the way in January, however, if Gov. Charlie Crist approves recommendations made during the recent special legislative session.
Medicare reimbursements average about $800 per member per month and will increase 3.5 percent next year. Because the federal government wanted to encourage private insurers to offer Medicare plans, it pays about 12 percent more for seniors on private plans than it does for traditional Medicare.
WellCare was a slow-growing Florida company until 1992 when its owner, Dr. Kiran Patel, sold it to a New York investment group led by financier George Soros. The bankers hired Todd Farha, an aggressive Harvard MBA, to transform the company. Under his leadership, WellCare's earnings have increased eight-fold and the company's investors and executives like Farha have profited handsomely from appreciation in its stock.
In an interview last year, Farha credited WellCare's success with hard work, attractive member benefits and close attention to the basics. But he has also nurtured the kinds of relationships invaluable to a company dependent on government funding.
WellCare and its affiliates have given the Republican Party of Florida some $105,000 in contributions this year, according to state election records. They've also given the Florida Democratic Party $5,000 this year. In 2006, WellCare's PAC gave $66,000 to federal candidates, all Republicans.
And the company's board has included the head of the Florida agency that oversees Medicaid, Dr. Andrew Agwunobi. Agwunobi was a director for six months before being picked to head the Agency for Health Care Administration. For his six months service on WellCare's board, Agwunobi received stock, which he sold for more than $1-million.
Current WellCare board members include former Florida Sen. Bob Graham and Ruben King-Shaw, former head of Florida's health agency and an ex-deputy chief at Medicare.
From National Review Online:
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Lopez: Does Fred Thompson have a Terri Schiavo problem? He’s said he opposed congressional invention to save her life.
St. Martin: Fred Thompson has stated that he believes decisions about a patient's life saving care should be made by the patient or their family. But he has also made clear that when the patient wants treatment, or in cases where the patient's wishes are unknown, their families want life-sustaining treatment, that it should be provided. In cases where the family is divided, he believes the benefit of the doubt should be given to life. It should be noted that Terri would be alive today if the division in the family had been decided in favor of life as Fred Thompson favors.
Is Fred the Life of the Party?
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From MSNBC:
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From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum and Andy Merten
Several issues could have stood in the way of the National Right to Life Committee endorsement Thompson received today: his refusal to agree with the 2004 Republican Party platform on abortion, his opinion on the Terri Schiavo case, and his vote on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform. But Executive Director David O'Steen said today that those issues did not compare to his overall pro-life view.
More on Fred's Natl Right to Life nod
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From CBS:By emphasizing Thompson's political potential - he ranks second behind former New York Mayor Giuliani in national Republican polls - the anti-abortion group played down its own differences with Thompson.
Thompson has been at odds with the group because he doesn't support a federal constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, a long-standing party platform plank; because he has called the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case a family matter, and because he backed campaign finance regulations that the group considers a restriction of free speech.
Thompson Calls For Bulking Up Military
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Atlanta Journal Constitution:
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In other presidential news, the political action committee of the National Right to Life Committee has endorsed Republican Fred Thompson for president — dismissing his opposition to a constitutional ban on abortion, and his fuzzy comments on the Terry Schiavo case. Keep in mind there’s a split between the national organization and its Georgia chapter. You can read the entire NRLC endorsement here, but below are two interesting sections:
“While Fred supports the long-term objective of the Human Life Amendment, the votes are simply not there in Congress, nor were they there when we controlled both houses of Congress. For instance, in the Senate, we are presently at least 25 votes short, with psssage in the House even more difficult.
“Fred intends to focus his presidency on those things that can be achieved, or advanced, in the next four to eight years.”............................................................
Presidential notes: Hillary vs. Giuliani, and National Right to Life embraces Fred Thompson
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TV in Tennessee:
Thompson also has called the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case a family matter and backed campaign finance regulations that the group considers a restriction of free speech.
Right to Life Says Thompson Can Beat 'Pro-Abortion' Giuliani
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DENVER, Colorado, November 13 /Christian Newswire/ -- After weeks of review, the Colorado Supreme Court has just released a decision granting Colorado for Equal Rights permission to move forward with a ballot initiative to restore personhood to human beings from the moment of conception.
Presidential candidate Dr. Alan Keyes, along with American Life League Founder Judie Brown, will speak about the necessity of such an initiative.
Colorado for Equal Rights will now begin gathering the 76,000 signatures required to put this issue on the November Ballot. This Constitutional Amendment will redefine the term "Person" in three parts of the Colorado Constitution to mean from the moment of fertilization.
Despite two unanimous votes from the Title Board, the petition was appealed based on claims that it dealt with more than one issue. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the petition was, indeed, a single-subject issue and affirmed previous rulings by the Title Board.
Colorado Supreme Court Gives Green Light to Restore Personhood to the Unborn
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Those who fanatically oppose the medical procedure of abortion refer to themselves as “pro-life”, implying that those who do not agree with them do not value life as much as they do (a most arrogant state of mind) .
To believe so strongly in your understanding of life that you assume the right to take away the freedom of a woman to determine what will define her life is dangerous. You certainly have the right to try to influence that woman to do what you think is best, but it is her right and responsibility to make the final decision.
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The Colorado Supreme Court today released a decision giving proponents the go-ahead for a ballot initiative that would amend the state Constitution in 2008 to define personhood as a fertilized egg.
"Personhood" initiative wins Colo. court nod
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Fred Thompson EQUIVOCATES with the NRTL on euthanasia. He’s not very decisive or well informed either. When the Coalition for Women weighs in, it will be tar baby time again for Fred and Terri.
Look familiar? His deceased ex-wife was a Siavo.
Yes, now that you mentioned it.
ewe.
The similarity is creepy. And bad thing happen to their wives.
Yes, folks, there was a big conspiracy in Florida. It's going to be revealed someday.
wikipedia did a fair analysis of Terri Schiavo. Not great, but fair.
The last train to creepsville with those two. Peterson looks like brother Brian Schiavo too.
Their side of the story in both photos. It doesn't get any creepier. One a cop and the other a Sheriff employee.
NRTL, FRED AND TERRI, God rest her soul. NRTL endorsements aren't what they used to be.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200711/POL20071113c.html
Haven’t gotten to that one yet, but for another day, Fred and Terri dominate the news. I mean I predicted this at the very beginning of the gaffe but had no idea....
I hope nobody thinks I am picking on Fred. I am just recording what others say regarding Terri. Just a whole lot are connecting Fred to Terri and have from the beginning.
And Thompson's reluctance - or inability - to give straight answers to simple questions, even from his religious-right supporters, has been raising eyebrows and concerns.
For example: In Bible Belt Greenville, S.C., a woman in the crowd at his stump speech asked Thompson if he'll talk about his religious beliefs while campaigning. In response, he rambled about how uncomfortable he finds personal revelations. "I'm doing the best I can with it, because I don't hold myself out to be a perfect person. ... But I know that I'm right with God, and I'm right with the people I love, and the people I love are right with me."
Asked about congressional action in the Terri Schiavo case, a particularly important event for the religious right, Thompson responded: "That's going back in history. I don't remember the details of it." However, as armchair pundits are screaming that Thompson is a disappointment, says Ornstein, "he has not exactly plummeted in the polls."
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"Pro-life" apparently doesn’t mean pro-life. Fred Thompson has received the endorsement of the National Right to Life Committee even though he doesn’t favor a human life amendment to the Constitution, didn’t favor Terri Schiavo’s right to life during his November 4 NBC “Meet the Press” appearance, and once lobbied for a pro-abortion group.
One conservative news service claims that Thompson has a 100 percent pro-life voting record. In fact, he got only 86 percent in the 105th Congress.
Even more significant, Thompson has now flip-flopped on one of the most important issues of our time―whether disabled people should have the right to life.
At a November 13 news conference at which the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) announced its endorsement of Thompson for president, NRLC executive director David N. O’Steen said, in response to my questions, that Thompson had provided “some clarifications” of his controversial “Meet the Press” remarks and that he now favors the right to life of disabled people like Terri Schiavo.
Flip-Flopping Fred Thompson and the Right to Life
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