FBI raid shutters Medicare insurer (WellCare - formerly owned by George Soros)

St. Petersburg Times ^ | 10/25/07 | Kris Hundley

[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.

[8mmMauser]

This article by Wesley J. Smith is in a thread by jy22077. Thank you, jy2207 for this thread. I am quoting parts where he echoes the plight of people we track in our Terri Dailies, namely Jesse Ramirez and Haleigh Poutre. Thanks FV and Phil Dragoo, for the ping. It can also be found by those who receive the Foundation newsletter and on their website. The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation

......................................

On October 19, only months after being nearly dehydrated to death when his feeding tube was removed, Jesse Ramirez walked out of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix on his own two legs. Ramirez is lucky to be alive. Early last June, a mere one week after a serious auto accident left him unconscious, his wife Rebecca and doctors decided he would never recover and pulled his feeding tube. He went without food and water for five long days. But then his mother, Theresa, represented by lawyers from the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, successfully took Rebecca to court demanding a change of guardianship on the grounds that Rebecca and Jesse's allegedly rocky marriage disqualified her for the role.

The judge ordered that Jesse be temporarily rehydrated and nourished. Then Jesse regained consciousness. Now, instead of dying by dehydration, he will receive rehabilitation and get on with his life--all because his mother rejected the reigning cultural paradigm that a life with profound cognitive dysfunction is not worth living.

Ramirez is only the latest instance of an unconscious patient waking up after being consigned to death by dehydration. Take the disturbing case of 12-year-old Haleigh Poutre in Massachusetts. Haleigh barely survived terrible child abuse and then was nearly done in by the very people charged with protecting her. Only eight days after she was hospitalized in the wake of a beating, the Massachusetts Department of Public Social Services, acting on doctors' solemn assurances that she was "virtually brain dead," requested permission to remove her respirator and feeding tube. This request was approved by the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

But the doctors, social workers, and judges were wrong about Haleigh's prospects. Just before her life support was withdrawn, she began to exhibit signs of awareness--she picked up a stuffed duck when requested--leading to a last-minute reprieve. Today, while Haleigh's exact condition is not public information, reports in the media indicate she is awake and aware and able to eat some foods.

Awakenings

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[8mmMauser]

Please note the last paragraph of the above on Haleigh Poutre. Rightly Wesley J. Smith recognizes she received a reprieve as if sentenced to death as a vicious criminal, and that, she was. Note also, DSS has kept poor Haleigh under wraps so the world may not see how she receives her care. They regard her as their personal property even today. At least she escaped the attempts to kill her so far.

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[8mmMauser]

Baptist press weighs in on candidates and Terri.

CHANGE OF ATTITUDE ON SCHIAVO -- More than two years after Republicans in Washington led the charge to keep Terri Schiavo alive, the leading GOP presidential candidates say they have doubts as to the way their party handled the situation, The Boston Globe reported Oct. 25. Schiavo is the Florida disabled woman who died after her feeding tube was pulled.

Mitt Romney has called the decision of Congress to get involved a mistake. Fred Thompson said he is "uncomfortable" with Congress' actions, while Rudy Giuliani has called it a family matter. Mike Huckabee months ago said, "I wasn't sure how the federal government had a role in all that," while John McCain -- who supported Congress' actions at the time -- now says legislators "acted too hastily."

Bobby Schindler, Schiavo's brother, says he is writing the candidates to express his concern.

"I want to personally talk with them about Terri's case," he told The Globe. "They need to be fully informed. There obviously exists a lot of confusion about my sister's situation."

CHANGE OF ATTITUDE ON SCHIAVO

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[8mmMauser]

How many times now have we heard this refrain shouted at us in different Goebblesque refrain? Decent Americans want innocents like Terri killed by the State and hate any who would try to save the lives of same innocents. Here a candidate digs the dog-eared block out of the mantra toybox and tosses it at one who defended Terri.

MELBOURNE, Fla., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Congressman Dave Weldon (R-FL), a physician, voted one more time against the Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), thus helping to prevent the expansion of this program to cover some of the 9 million uninsured children in our country. Dr. Stephen Blythe, a family physician in the congressman's district, takes such exception to Weldon's actions in Congress that he will be running against him for the 15th District seat next year. This may be the first time two physicians have faced each other in a congressional race in fifty years.

~Snip~

"I am as different from Dave Weldon as night and day," says Blythe. "I am an environmentalist, I am against this administration's abuses of our constitutional rights, and against the war in Iraq. I am also against government interference in a family's private end-of-life decision-making." It was Dave Weldon who brought the full weight of the U.S. Government to bear in the Terri Schiavo controversy in Florida in 2005.

Fellow Physician to Challenge Dr. Dave Weldon for His Congressional Seat

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[8mmMauser]

Rudy Tuesday brought to us by wagglebee...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll conducted by Fox News finds that almost half of all voters want to know where a candidate stands on the issue of abortion before casting their vote for or against him. The poll is the latest to show that abortion still has a significant impact for voters, despite media pronouncements to the contrary.

The new survey, released on Friday, finds 45 percent of Americans need to know a candidate's position on abortion before they vote, while 53 percent say they don't.

A candidate's position on abortion is more important for pro-life voters than those who back abortion.

Half of Americans Want to Know Candidate's Abortion Stance Before Voting

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[8mmMauser]

Candidate Duncan Hunter in contrast...

Thread by pissant. Thanks, DavidOsborne.

Recently a number of social conservatives rightfully criticized some of the less than fiscally conservative postions of former Governor Mike Huckabee. They oppose him on PRINCIPLES, you see? That is all good, unless they are LIARS and HYPOCRITS who now are going to endorse or support someone even more liberal fiscally and totally opposed to them socially. Who would that be? Who could they support who are worse than Mike Huckabee? Easy, lets start with Fred I-Lobby-For-Abortion Thompson. I almost ranked John McCain ahead of Thompson, and I may still yet. Then there is Mitt Flip-Flop-I-Support-Safe-Legal-Abortion-And-Special-Rights-For-Gays Romney. Frankly, I don't even know why I have to mention Rudy Giuliani.

Duncan Hunter - The Only Choice Left

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Rudy Tuesday, more...

Thread by wagglebee.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Rudy Giuliani has tried hard to use his supposed advocacy of adoption as the mayor of New York to combat Republican opposition to his pro-abortion views as he campaigns for president. His pro-adoption claims have been refuted on previous occasions and now a leading abortion advocate says they are "unsupportable."

Abortion Advocate Says Rudy Giuliani's Adoption Claims "Unsupportable"

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Blunt Truth

Thread by wagglebee.

Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- Missouri Governor Matt Blunt has called for a new state task force to examine the myriad of ways abortions hurts women by causing either medical, mental health or other problems. Blunt has put together the Governor's Task Force on the Impact of Abortion on Women at a time when abortion advocates say abortion benefits women.

Missouri Governor Creates Task Force to Probe How Abortion Hurts Women

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[Sun]

More on post 106:

HUNTER: “..on the Schiavo case, you know Ronald Reagan said on the question of life, when there’s a question, error on the side of life. I think Congress did the right thing.”

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=5562636

HUCKABEE: Huckabee, on governmental intervention in the Terri Schiavo case:

“I had no problem with the state getting involved because it’s one of their citizens. but I wasn’t sure how the federal government had a role in all that.”’

http://pushingrope.blogspot.com/2007/05/mike-huckabee-on-terri-schiavo.html

Huckabee disappointed me, because it is the government’s DUTY to protect innocent lives.

Rudy, Mitt, John and Fred also didn’t think that Congress should have intervened.

Also, I have read that McCain wanted to change the GOP platform from pro-life to pro-”choice.” Big tent theory, I guess.

[pissant]

Timely!

[floriduh voter]

Liberals for Terri. It's not about right wingers. Who will these libs vote for? They know what went down too.

http://liberalsforterri.blogspot.com/

[floriduh voter]

Sun, Jeb is for Rudy, Greer's rich pal (Sembler) is for Mitt, Fred's got some Bushes for him. It's a little weird because Sembler and Jeb have been really kissy kissy for years. As well as Bush 43 and 41. So, what's Rudy done for Jeb lately? Maybe Jeb wants to be in a Rudy tooty cabinet since he wouldn't have to run but could go to Washington anyhow. Appointed, not elected-which would never happen now in a million years.

Just a theory in the middle of the night.

[Enchante]

"If somebody's on the SEC, they are supposed to have scruples and integrity, are they not?"

Yes, and that was the idea FDR had in appointing the contemptible Joseph Kennedy as the first head of the SEC....../s

IIRC it was FDR who said he had to appoint a crook to catch crooks, or something like that......

[floriduh voter]

Dave Weldon is a great congressman and doctor. SCHIPS gave 25 year olds health care. Sorry, but that's not a minor. SCHIPS is supposed to be for kids, like Trix, not 25 year olds.

Dr. Blythe, is he a bioethicker? It would be easy enough to find out.

[floriduh voter]

Okay, I re-read and see that Blythe is for killing disabled people because Greer can. www.judgegeorgegreer.com

[floriduh voter]

Murder is no longer a crime. Happy Halloween. Is the GOP the ghoulish old party or what?

Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Alan Keyes and sometimes Huckabee are for protecting life and well,

the others are in the GHOULISH OLD PARTY.

Boo!!!!

[floriduh voter]

Well, in this case we have an RNC pioneer who was appointed but also kept his day job mismanaging Wellcare. This Wellcare debacle reminds me of the Dilbert comic strip.

[8mmMauser]

One thing here is crucial. The democrats may not like it, but they experience the power and import of Terri's Legacy.

Knowing what we know, it is a telling condemnation of the democrat party of late, in iron clad irony supporting the far left. Once again, they rattle on that old propaganda piece that good Americans want innocents like Terri killed and hate Americans who would wish to save her. The poor stepmother here wrongly branded Jeb. Had she known, he was to become her hero by bravely playing Pontius Pilate and allowing the killing to proceed with his blessings. These types of democrats suffer from incredible cognative dissonence, the ability to bundle a bunch of conflicting concepts into the same bag.

This article is a compendium of misquotes and bs by that Kingsley Guy. Anyone wishing to tally the inanane statements should read the whole mess.

I wasn't expecting the angry response of my stepmother toward a Republican politician. "Maybe so," she said in almost a shout, "but he should be ashamed of himself for what he's doing to that poor woman with the feeding tube."

That "poor woman" was Terri Schiavo, who had been institutionalized in Pinellas County since 1990 after she suffered a stroke and entered a persistent vegetative state.

The religious right, with Gov. Bush as its strongest ally, wanted the state to keep Schiavo alive. After interminable legal and political battles, however, a judge ordered the feeding tube removed, allowing Schiavo to finally die in March 2005.

Democrats, learn from Schiavo case

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Well here we have an opinion from the President of the ACLU and just guess which side they took on Terri. In my estimation one cannot get much harder core with a diamond center than these commies. Any who still side with her killer and even considers themselves FReepers should swallow what the top brain of the American Commie Loonies Union says. I do note she hasn't selected the favorite killing method of dehydration for herself. Somebody please hand this death lover a glass of Canada dry.

...................................

DS: So how would you like to die?

NS: Well, the first thing that occurred to me was: I want to have the choice. That was the very first thing that occurred to me, because I know how through personal experiences, through vicarious experiences, through reading the complaints in our law suits where we have challenged the absolute restrictions on compassion and dying, people are essentially tortured. And I don’t want that to happen. And I don’t want my love wants tortured by watching that happen.

DS: You wouldn’t want a Terri Schiavo situation?

NS: That was an ACLU case; we represented her husband there. It has to be consenting, but there are measures we can take, and precautions we can take, so there it should be regulated. I say the same thing about drugs. You wouldn’t want to have regulation the way we do for food and alcohol, but absolute prohibition is completely inhumane and counter to the most fundamental autonomy of who you are.

DS: So you have the choice, what is your choice?

NS: My choice would be to take a sleeping pill, I guess, or maybe morphine would have the same effect, to peacefully pass from this Earth when I have made a decision that I can no longer live in this state of comfort and dignity that makes life meaningful to me.......................................

ACLU President Strossen on religion, drugs, guns and impeaching George Bush

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A hero...

Thread by wagglebee.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Former member of Congress Henry Hyde will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom next Monday for his work opposing abortion. For decades, after his landmark Hyde Amendment stopped federal funding of virtually all abortions, Hyde became the pro-life movement's elder statesman on Capitol Hill.

Henry Hyde to Get Presidential Medal of Freedom for Opposing Abortion

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