Posted on 12/31/2011 2:33:41 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
The media is about to begin the vetting of Rick Santorum and I suspect we’re going to hear a lot about Universal Health Services (“UHS”). Santorum’s involvement in UHS is one of the significant bits of his private sector experience.
After his 18 point loss in 2006, UHS appointed Rick Santorum to its Board of Directors.
On May 16, 2007, Santorum acquired 10,000 options to purchase Class B common stock. On November 21, 2009, he received another option for 5,000. In 2010, it was options for 15,000 shares and another 15,000 as recently as January 21, 2011, as Santorum begin to entertain thoughts of running for President.
On June 15, 2011, Santorum resigned from the board of UHS.
Here’s why the media will be interested.
On March 2, 2010, nearly three years after Santorum was appointed to the UHS board of directors, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint against UHS for billing Medicaid for “inpatient psychiatric care that was not provided.” The company received Medicaid funds to provide psychiatric counseling and treatment to boys ages 11 to 17.
According to the Department of Justice, UHS “[took] advantage of troubled children in order to feed their own desire for wealth.”
On July 29, 2010, an employee of the same Virginia adolescent psychiatric facility that was sued by DOJ filed suit against UHS for reprisal against her due to her “investigation of, reporting of, opposition to and refusal to participate in, her employer?s blatant and systemic criminal fraud against Medicaid engaged in by defendants[.]” See Barbara Jones v. Universal Health Services, Inc.
According to Barbara Jones, the whistleblower who brought suit against UHS, local company management encouraged employees to conduct “drive by therapy sessions” as they passed patients in the hallway and then record the brief interactions as a thirty minute individual therapy sessions to be billed to Medicaid. Jones also testified in her court filings that she was ordered by the local CEO to fabricate a Medicaid billing form and was told, after she refused to do so, that she would not be paid until the form was fabricated.
UHS tried to have the complaint dismissed not because of the veracity of the changes, but because it claimed Barbara Jones wasn’t an employee of UHS and therefore was not protected under a whistle blower statute.
Santorum possibly did not know about any of this, but in 2007 the federal government filed a lawsuit against UHS for Medicaid fraud going back all the way to 2004 — or well before Santorum was on the board. It’s kind of hard to claim complete ignorance of federal charges against a company on whose board he sat for over four years.
This is going to be an interesting vetting process, done even more rapidly than the vetting of Mike Huckabee back in 2008, if only because the media probably correctly thinks Santorum doesn’t have the staying power Huck had, so they want to get it all done quickly.
Bump for later
Game Show Ad:Wheel of Washington [1:01]
You think this isn't going to be public????
You KNOW it will.
Obama is sitting back laughing his ass off while we kill of our own candidates.
He is taking a 4 million dollar vacation in Hawaii,enjoying the sun and fun while do his job for him in ruining the chances of our candidates to beat him.
The worst President in the history of America, the man who should be beaten by a landslide, and he will go back into the WH to finish us off, because we have self destructed.
Obama will have $1BILLION in his war chest. You don’t think he doesn’t have all this information at his fingertips.
We need to pick the candidate that can stand and look Obama in the eye and tell him where to get off — not choose a candidate with dirty hands:
Romney — HEALTH CARE in MA — Environmentally weak
Gingrich — FREDDIE MAC and health care - Environmentally weak
Santorum — Earmarks up the wazoo and HEALTH CARE — ENDORSED Romney in ‘08.
No, Obama wants the GOP to run unvetted candidates so he can blow them out of the water after it’s too late. The only people against “negative campaigning” are the candidates with something to hide that should be flipping burgers anyway.
No, there's also that dumb Accuweather bill (which was properly excoriated here on FR at the time), but since I don't think Santorum's a viable candidate...
The more people see of Santorum, the more he's disliked. In 2004, he lost his reelection bid by 19 points. 19 points! For an incumbent! That's unheard of. I would much rather see the Governor of Texas get a 2nd look than see Rick Santorum.
"Monkey Who Fling Perry Poo Be Sh!t Out Of Luck In 83 Hours"
Looks like Rick in next in line for ‘whack a mole’
I know you're attempting to promote your candidate by attacking others, and that's fine...it's part of our process. But, while I disagree with your synopsis, the endorsement part reminds me of the old saying, "those who live in glass houses....."
Didn't Gov. Perry work for Al Gore (as a Democrat) and didn't Gov. Perry endorse Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 Presidential election?
Good luck with your effort.
As for the 2006 (not 2004) Senate defeat, almost all Republicans were trounced in PA in that election. Given the unpopularity of “W” and the name recognition that Casey had (being the son of a former King of PA), I don't think any Republican on the planet could have even run close.
One thing about that 2006 campaign, I watched it closely and don't recall Santorum ever vacillating from his Conservative views, unlike other politicians I know.
...but yes, this stinks.No, it doesn't. The only thing that stinks is your woeful attempt at logic.
The only reason companies put former pols on their boards is for shielding from government shakedowns or demands, at best, and corruption at worstNo, it is not. It is, and always has been, for connections to either investors or customers.
as appears to be the case here.Do you really, honestly, think that the UHS board and senior management are involved in the day-to-day management of some psychiatric facility which is probably one of 20 facilities (read 5%) in a less than 10% growth business unit for UHS and whose entire business unit represents probably less than 5% of its gross income (and that may be incredibly generous)?
What are Santorum’s accomplishments? The salient issue in this election is jobs. What is Santorum’s record re job creation?
For that matter, what other candidates besides Romney or Perry have solid records as job creators?
This is important because it hits Obama where is the most vulnerable.
I believe it happened and the disturbing part is that Santorum's story changed.
In my mind, Santorum is forever tarnished with the fact he changed his story and the press failed to follow up.
"Conservatives" take strong candidates, submit them to the witches' dunking booth, find the nailmarks missing from both hands and feet, then call for the lynching rope.
Liberals take a weak candidate, put nailmarks in his hands and feet with a magic marker, proclaim him messiah, then wink at each other and vote.
Erik Erickson is a lying backstabber and is no friend of conservatives. He has systematically picked apart every CONSERVATIVE that was in this race.
Santorum and Bachmann are much better than the other candidates who are actively campaigning.
If you're referring to the Texas Enterprise Fund, the Governor of Texas doesn't have the power to allocate those funds.
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