Get Ready to Hear All About Rick Santorum and Universal Health Services

Red State ^ | December 31, 2011 | Erick Erickson

[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.

[USS Alaska]

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:

Perry: Gives ILLEGAL ALIENS tax payer money - soft on ILLEGAL ALIENS

Signs an executive order that provides his pals at Merck an exclusive drug contract with Texas by having young girls take a pill that promotes promiscuity - under the table payoffs from his boys at Merck {but perrywinkles call them campaign contributions}.

Wifey, if you want to slam the pubbie candidates it's OK with me, but don't even pretend that the Texas clodhopper with an IQ of room temperature has clean hands.

He's as crooked as any politician, he just steals with a Texas drawl, and it makes you feel better.

[txrangerette]

These old saws against Rick Perry have been thoroughly vetted. Ad nauseum.

I know what I’m talking about here...I am Texan through and through and have lived the same Texas political history as Rick Perry.

The entire state of Texas was solid Democrat for most of its history. Certain parts were more dug in Democrat than others, among them the rural area Perry came from. You didn’t even have Republican options there to vote for, until fairly recently in that history.

The brand of Democrat was not the same as a northeastern liberal Democrat. Nowadays the Pelosi type Democrat is so foreign to these people’s beliefs and values it’s like different solar systems, not just different planets.

Perry tried to pick the best of the bad lot of Dems that year. I believe Dick Gephardt was running, and Dukakis.

People say algore was already showing lib tendencies when Perry backed him, but that is not how Perry had read Gore’s record. He saw him as the most conservative of those Dems running.

When Dukakis won the nomination, Perry voted for George HW Bush for President. He had already cast his Presidential vote for Ronald Reagan twice.

Endorsing Rudy was to keep from endorsing either McCain or Romney. He believed, and correctly, that Rudy would be the best leader in the War on Terrorism, of those who were running. He extracted a pledge, the man’s personal word, that he would appoint strict constructionist judges to the Supreme Court and would not seek to change any pro life policies that the GOP had put in place.

I wish he had not endorsed anyone from the terrible choices we had, but his choice was a thinking outside the box choice that was defensible given the options.

Santorum’s much ballyhooed social conservatism should have kept him from endorsing Romney, in my opinion. The best choice for him was probably no choice, but Romney is a bad pick.

I said the same about Herman Cain’s Romney endorsement, and for crying out loud, Jim DeMint even endorsed Romney.

[txrangerette]

Are Santorum’s actions and statements via earmarks conservative?

Recall that the greatest issue we face is downsizing the federal government and getting spending under control and paying down the debt.

Making the federal government as inconsequential in your lives as I can make it...to quote Rick Perry’s pledge if elected.

Perry called earmarks “the gateway drug” to out of control spending.

If you look into it, if you study it, you would draw the same conclusion.

It isn’t the cocaine or the heroin of our fiscal crisis, but it’s the marijuana and the alcohol that lead to it.

If you defend your own earmarks and are proud of them, then you cannot cricicize anyone else’s earmarks. Every Congressman and Senator has to be given that same pass.

And why is someone the conservatives love to villify, Speaker Boehnor, personally opposed to earmarks and has never put one in a bill?

If Boehnor...and there are a few others...can resist earmarking and will not defend it, why can’t Santorum resist earmarking and not defend it?

Someone coined a description of Santorum as a Big Government Social Conservative.

Could have a point there...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.....I would much rather see the Governor of Texas get a 2nd look than see Rick Santorum.

The MSM needs to get an earful about their coverage of Rick Perry!

Bump!!

[GOPyouth]

Perry: Gives ILLEGAL ALIENS tax payer money - soft on ILLEGAL ALIENS

How so? If you're referring to instate tuition, they are not getting taxpayer funded money. They are paying the instate tuition rate b/c they have been living here, graduated a Texas high school, and have been paying taxes into the Texas system. They have to secure their own funding. All said, this group makes up 1% of the admissions in Texas schools.

As for your claim that he's soft on immigration, Gov. Perry has done more than any of the other candidates combined in combating the problem we have. The federal government has a constitutional requirement to deal with this, and it has refused. Therefore, Gov. Perry has allocated an ass load of Texas taxpayer money (money that doesn't grow on trees, mind you, b/c we have to balance our budget every 2 years) to help deal with this problem. He signed a bill into law that requires ID to vote, and heavily pushed this past year to get the legislature to end the sanctuary city problem. He has personally confronted Barack Obama to deal with this issue. There's a nice photo out there of Perry handing Obama a formal written request. Mitt Romney hasn't done this. Ron Paul hasn't done this. Michelle Bachmann hasn't done this. Rick Santorum hasn't done this. Huntsman hasn't done this. Herman Cain never did this. Sarah Palin never did this. Newt Gingrich never did this. Barack Obama never did this. Joe Biden never did this. And when the others talk about building a nonstop wall right in the the smack middle of the Rio Grande, anyone with any knowledge whatsoever of the geography of the Texas border knows that it's a pipe dream.

Signs an executive order that provides his pals at Merck an exclusive drug contract with Texas by having young girls take a pill that promotes promiscuity - under the table payoffs from his boys at Merck {but perrywinkles call them campaign contributions}.

Your issue seems to be that he chose Merck over another company. What other company should Perry have chosen? He couldn't have chosen another company at the time b/c no other company made the vaccine. However, the CDC recommended the vaccine, and Gov. Perry signed an executive order for the vaccine that stated you didn't have to take the vaccine if you didn't want to.

As for you suggesting a quid pro quo with Merck, do you have proof that the Governor of Texas or Merck conducted a quid pro quo? Post hoc ergo propter hoc doesn't cut it.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Exactly — the slippery slope.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Ditto that!!

[Chandalier]

And so the conservative destruction of good candidates continues. We are beginning to deserve a second Obama term, if not earn one.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I’m working to get a good conservative elected — Rick Perry.

How and what are you doing in the GOP primarey to elect a conservative?

Do you have a choice? Have you been running from one to another?

[dirtboy]

I’m working to get a good conservative elected — Rick Perry.

Then promote your candidate instead of bashing other conservatives who are ahead of Perry.

[txrangerette]

To reveal records that have been hidden, not vetted, and to discuss them, is not bashing. To post stories and open them up for discussion is not bashing.

You will never stop her dirtboy, either from posting pro Perry material or vetting material on other candidates getting free rides from whomever for whatever reason.

Keep telling her what to do, and not to do, and keep on.....

FAILING.

If you must.

Hasn’t and won’t change a thing.

Must be your hobby.

[txrangerette]

I must have missed those “other conservatives” that are “ahead of Perry”...I believed not a single vote had been cast.

How could I have missed the voting?

[dirtboy]

I will point out her hypocrisy and backstabbing for all to see, and you can kiss my pasty rump.

[dirtboy]

Ahead in the polls, moron.

[dirtboy]

Ahead in the polls, moron.

[teg_76]

Well said dirtboy. I'll be posting some Perry debate highlights today to remind people how incompetent this guy sounds and what a disaster he would be as our candidate.

Normally wouldn't do this but with the incessant spamming we're getting from Perry supporters makes it necessary.

[TADSLOS]

Perry shills can’t stand the idea that Perry could be challenged by his actions compared to his campaign propaganda. Better to “Alinsky” the opposition by flooding the zone. BTW, when will Perry ever disclose his office financial and performance records regarding the 400M ETF/TEF to the tax paying public? How about that 1.2 M bill for personal security that he won’t acknowledge? When will Perry stop destroying official e-mails from the governors office? Where’s Rick’s transparency?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Well said dirtboy. I'll be posting some Perry debate highlights today to remind people how incompetent this guy sounds and what a disaster he would be as our candidate. Normally wouldn't do this but with the incessant spamming we're getting from Perry supporters makes it necessary.

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Mitt flier: Perry 'wants to kill Social Security' (being distributed in Florida)

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Carbon Copies [60 second video campaign ad]

Mitt: That's -- I'm running for office, for Pete's sake, I can't have illegals.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

dirtboy, you and the Associated Press are on the same page — LoL!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i3nCgj6CBwtdx0FFdWp6VRzasUhQ?docId=801b5334fc10433398fec291c507023f

[dirtboy]

Nice try, shill, but no stogie. You are so predictable - as soon as a candidate moves ahead of Perry in the polls, you fall over yourself rushing to bash them on FR.