Posted on 10/23/2008 12:39:29 PM PDT by OPS4
Pushing further into Gov. Rod Blagojevich's inner circle, federal investigators have subpoenaed records involving a lobbyist friend who represented a hospital company that won a favorable state ruling.
The company's for-profit affiliate donated $25,000 to Blagojevich's campaign a month after the state's action.
John Wyma, a top fundraiser and former Blagojevich aide, was named in a federal subpoena delivered two weeks ago to Provena Health, according to sources. It sought records about Provena's lobbying relationship with Wyma, the donation and the company's efforts to win approval for a new heart program.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Fitzmas coming early this year?.............
Merry Fitzmas to all, and to all a good night!
It would be spooky if Fitzmas were to coincide with Halloween. Boo!
These Republicans are corrupt to the core! Even ommitting party affiliation from the news, we know damn well that he’s a Republican, because of the Republican Culture of Corruption. This would never have happened under a Democrat administration.
/End Hopefully Obvious Sarcasm
But aren't we glad Patrick Fitzgerald put George Ryan in jail? Isn't Illinois just a paradise now that the evil Republicans have been prosecuted? I'll tell ya . . . it just doesn't get any better than this.
Is this organization affiliated with Michelle my bell?
The dims in this state are among the most corrupt, disgraceful politicians in the entire country.
And thanks to our abundance of stupid voters, most of them get re-elected time after time.
I know I am. Now if Fitzgerald would only move on to the IRCC and toss a few of those a**holes into the can, I'd be a very happy man.
They're the idiots who gave us Alan Keyes and Judy Barr Topinka. Not to mention the lot of them are dirty to the core...
L
Pat Quinn is a good man. Supports the troops more than any Dem. in Illinois- went against Rod boy on that looney corp tax proposal a couple years ago.
Is there a President Biden in our future? Four years of gaffs followed by the first Palin Administration.
If Obama gets to the Whitehouse, Fitzgerald will be fired.
The case against Blagojavich and Co will be reassigned, reviewed, and otherwise delayed until the new Democrat US Attorney quietly reports he she could find no evidence of wrong doing.
There will be no congress hearings and no media outrage.
Obama will only be following standard practice ie Bill Clinton when he fired all US Attorneys to conceal his own criminal links to Madison S&L et al.
Very well done here is your proof.
Investigative pieces by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post trigger a new investigation by Senator Grassley.
Investigation. Published: September 4, 2008
The Wall Street Journal investigation (there have been several) that got Senator Grassley’s attention was the excellent piece that was written by Barbara Martinez regarding not-for-profit M.D. Anderson Cancer Clinic.
It was titled “Cash before chemo: hospitals get tough”. (To read it again, just type cash before chemo into my search engine.)
The Washington Post story about not-for-profit the University of Chicago Hospitals was titled “Obama campaign has many ties to wife’s employer”.
To see that article just type in Washington Post.
Here’s what Grassley had to say in his news release.
“As part of his ongoing oversight of tax-exempt issues, Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, sent separate inquiries in the last several weeks to two tax-exempt hospitals whose public service and tax-exempt purpose have come into question. On July 23, Grassley wrote to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, a hospital that was featured in an April 28, 2008, Wall Street Journal article regarding the hospital’s billing practices involving a leukemia patient. On Friday, Grassley wrote to the University of Chicago Medical Center after a story in The Washington Post last month described the hospital’s efforts to steer under-insured and uninsured patients away from the hospital to clinics. Grassley made the following comment on his two letters. The text of the letters is attached.
“I keep hearing that tax-exempt hospitals are changing their ways. At the roundtable I convened last year, the hospital community told me to wait and see before legislating, that the new 990 Schedule H would not only provide data to make informed decisions but also would change behavior. It’s troubling then to hear about two world-renowned hospitals engaging in questionable practices. One made it into the limelight for reportedly requiring a critically ill patient to come up with exorbitant amounts of cash upfront and badgering her for cash during medical treatment. Another appears to be culling the least profitable patients from its emergency room. The answers to the questions I’m asking are critical to understanding whether these hospitals are setting standards for their peers. Those standards might include losing sight of the public service that comes with tax-exempt status.”
In the letter to M.D. Anderson, Grassley points out that “M.D. Anderson is also a participant in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Notably, it is one of only twelve hospitals in the nation that requested and received a special exemption from the Medicare Prospective Payment System (”PPS”). This exemption allows M.D. Anderson to be paid by Medicare for inpatient treatment on a reasonable cost basis, subject to certain limitations, rather than under the PPS system, which only pays acute care hospitals a prospectively determined fixed payment for each discharge. In addition to this more generous reimbursement policy, because of this special exception, Medicare also reimburses for allowable capital costs at M.D. Anderson on a reasonable cost basis.”
In his letter to the University of Chicago Hospitals he asks about their collection policies (I have reported that in FY 2007, they spent $4,440,245 on collection agency fees), he asks about the South Side Health Collaborative/Urban Health Initiative, and the job description for Vice President of Community and External Relations.
Even though this investigation started with the Washington Post, watch for the hospital and the Obama campaign to scream that this s a partisan political witch hunt, because the project was headed by Michelle Obama.
The hospital refused to disclose to the Post how much they paid Obama’s strategist David Axelrod to work on this project.
I’m told it was $20,000 a month.
The two questions in particular that I can’t wait to see the hospital dodge are 1. To “provide minutes of board or other executive meetings documenting the decision to launch these programs” and 2. To “describe the hiring and selection process for this position, including when the position was created, whether the vacancy was publicly announced, and the criteria for selection”.
If the hospital will be honest they will have to admit that the position was created for Michelle Obama exclusively.
To read the letters in their entirety, Click Here for the one to the University of Chicago Hospitals, and Click Here for the one to M.D. Anderson.
http://www.wherethemoneygoes.com/newDay.php?m=9&y=2008&d=4
Watch some of the replies I get to post #6, and you'll see the truth of your statement.
Thank you for posting that information. News to me.
I think I knew the answer, was just curious, good research.
We need to send a party of investigators to check out quid-pro-quo-gate and Obama/Axelrod’s involvement.
I am embarrassed to call this my home state! The Illinois GOP is clueless as to how put it all back together too!! It’s gonna be a long time... **sniff**
It is shameful, embarrassing and disgusting.
What about Peter Roskam? I know he’s a first-termer so far but isn’t he pretty squeaky clean?
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