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

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.

Good news in Virginia... Thread by Coleus and thanks to narses for the ping.

A lawsuit pro-life attorneys filed on behalf of a group of students who were denied official recognition for their pro-life club apparently did the trick. Colonial Forge High School was the latest to come under fire for discriminating against pro-life students and found itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit from the Alliance Defense Fund.

A student at the school wanted to start a pro-life student club on campus and applied for her club to become officially recognized. Officially recognized student clubs enjoy privileges such as access to the school newspaper, bulletin boards, and the public announcement system, as well as being able to participate in student activities programs and club fairs. Stafford County School officials denied the student's application, stating that her pro-life club “does not meet the standard of a direct curricular link.”

Virginia School Will Recognize Student Pro-Life Group After Lawsuit Filed

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Fred and Terri tar baby dailies.

Not much surprise here as the news today regarding Terri is dominated by Fred and Terri. We also issue a zillion formal toldjaso's that this tar baby would cling in hot weather and cold. The piece is but an excerpt from Accuracy in Media and I urge all to read the whole thing.

Warning to All Who Would be King, shrug off Terri's Legacy only at great peril.

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

The “Meet the Press” appearance, however, was more of a disaster than most people realize because the major media still distort the facts surrounding the controversial Terri Schiavo right-to-life case. Russert had asked Thompson questions about the case. Thompson, in his answers, sounded as if he believed that her family had been united in favor of starving her to death when in fact her parents had wanted to keep her alive and care for her. It’s a crime that she was killed. It is so twisted and cruel in America today that, during the two weeks that Terri was being starved to death, her mother could have been arrested and charged with a crime for giving her a drop of water.

Under these circumstances, political leaders should be rallying to the cause of the human rights of the disabled. Instead, as the Boston Globe noted, even Republican presidential candidates are running away from the issue.

In this case, however, Thompson won’t be able to blame the media for getting his facts wrong. Terri’s brother, Bobby Schindler, tells me that the foundation his family has established in Terri’s name has never been contacted about the case by Thompson or his campaign.

Fred Thompson Is Finished

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Fred and Terri tar baby dailies, again...

This from Townhall.com

Thompson thought better of this position after the program. His campaign manager Bill Lacy told me Tuesday that Thompson "does not want to change the platform" in 2008. But there was no apology for raising the criminalization chimera. Neither Thompson nor Lacy seemed to understand that what he said antagonized the social right.

Miss Jones told me she switched off "Meet the Press" after Thompson's talk about jailing women. If she had continued, she would have heard him reiterate positions that previously had disturbed social conservatives: opposition to a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and opposition to congressional intervention to save the life of Terri Schiavo.

Fred Thompson's Blunder

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Fred and Terri tar baby dailies, and again...

But when Thompson finally threw his hat into the ring in early September, it didn't turn out that way. To be sure, he quickly joined the front-runners in what is now a four-way race. In several states, among likely Republican primary voters, he may even be the front-runner. (In others, he has done well but lagged slightly behind Giuliani.) But he assuredly hasn't routed his three somewhat more liberal rivals, and it now appears that he may not do so.

Why not? It's probably mostly a matter of style. Thompson is laid-back, soft-spoken and gives the unfortunate impression of not having thought very hard about some of the issues. (He admitted not giving much attention to the Terri Schiavo case -- the brain-damaged woman from St. Petersburg, Fla., who was taken off life support following a whirlwind of controversy -- though it had riveted the nation for a month.) Where is the genial repartee, the impish wisecrack, and the easygoing smoothness of Ronald Reagan? Granted, Reagan is a model no candidate can easily live up to, but conservatives can dream, can't they?

The Republican Scramble

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Fred and Terri tar baby dailies, and over...

It's hard to believe that Fred Thompson once was ballyhooed as the '08 savior who would galvanize the GOP's Christian conservatives. Those summer days seem like eons ago, because every time this guy opines on an issue near and dear to the religious right, he probably loses another congregation.

A week ago, for instance, Thompson declared that the GOP Congress had no business intruding in the Terri Schiavo case back in 2005 — a stance that is deemed anathema by social and religious conservatives, who believe that President Bush and the reigning Republicans were correct when they endeavored to dictate their view of morality to a grieving Florida family.

Thompson's federalism draws no 'amens' from religious right

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You be the Judge, or Judge not...

It's where monumental decisions are made: Refusing to reinsert Terry Schiavo's feeding tube, allowing Elian Gonzalez to return to Cuba, declining to block ballot recounts in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

Yet, the important work of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is conducted in a 96-year-old building in downtown Atlanta that's so jammed, 80 employees have to work off site.

Federal appeals court to expand

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New Crist Minstrals are playing...

(11/7/07) In his weekly Creators Syndicate newspaper column from Oct. 25, our own Matt Towery percolated into national political and media circles again the sensible notion that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist could be the Republican Party’s nominee for vice president next year.

Especially if either of right-wing heartstring-pluckers Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson head the ticket, Crist’s social moderation and kinder, gentler personality might be, well, just the ticket.

Whether or not, a larger point unavoidably looms for the GOP in Florida. In Charlie Crist, the man, the time and the place have all met in the state in 2007 and probably 2008.

Crist is popular with just about everybody in Florida except his own party’s meat-eating base; that base’s political proclivities – militant foreign policy, traditional social values, and perceived xenophobia – are on the outs for now with moderate swing voters.

Crist holds the cards in Florida Republican presidential race

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One more thing to add to the pile, thread by wagglebee on the dark enemy we face...

NEW YORK, November 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The meaning of human nature itself is under threat from a new philosophy of “soul-less scientism” that will undermine “our own self-understanding as human beings” and reduces the aspirations of mankind to the purely material realm. This new philosophy outstrips the danger posed by the actual techniques and technologies of modern biomedical science, said Dr. Leon Kass, speaking to a New York audience in October.

“Scientific ideas and discoveries” he said, “are being enlisted to do battle against our traditional religious and moral teachings, and even our self-understanding as creatures with freedom and dignity.”

In a speech to the Manhattan Institute last month, Dr. Kass, one of the most prominent public intellectuals dealing with bioethical issues, also pointed out that in many cases, these technical achievements are being used “for purposes beyond therapy, and may soon be used to transform human nature itself.”

“Train to Huxley's Dehumanized Brave New World has Already Left the Station”

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Encouraging effort in Congress, in a thread by wagglebee...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The number of women in Congress has grown steadily over the years as the old boy's network has given way to a modern feminist world. Though groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood would think to think all of the women are pro-abortion, several pro-life stalwarts have created a new caucus for pro-life women.

Powerful pro-life women leaders are making a difference for mothers and their unborn babies in Congress and they have formed a new outreach for their efforts: the Congressional Pro-Life Women's Caucus.

Pro-Life Women in Congress Start Legislative Caucus Opposing Abortion

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Our challenge laid out by an Archbishop in a thread by wagglebee...

WASHINGTON, DC, November 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last week, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, Colorado addressed the 15th Annual Society of Catholic Social Scientists Meeting hosted by St. John's University School of Law in New York. Chaput addressed the gathering with a talk entitled: "Church and State Today: What Belongs to Caesar and What Does Not."

Archbishop Chaput was joined at the conference by other noteworthy scholars including Dr. William Donohue of the Catholic League who gave the keynote address entitled "Uncommon Alliance: Religious Conservatives Unite." Father Richard Neuhaus of First Things also addressed the attendants in a talk entitled: "The Role of the Catholic Public Intellectual." According to the Law School's website, the two day conference included over 200 other speakers and 70 discussion panels.

Chaput began his address providing a rudimentary sketch of an "anonymous society." The society described had devastating fertility rates, promiscuity, and a lack of regard for the sacredness of the family and of unborn human life. The archbishop explained that while the description of this "anonymous society" could very fittingly be applicable to today's society, in fact, he was referring to Roman society around the time of Christ.

Archbishop Chaput Says Follow Example of Early Christians in Fight Against Culture of Death

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Anyone else appalled that Robertson found a "higher" god than Our Lord?? Thread by wagglebee.

A conservative political commentator says Pat Robertson's endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for president earlier today is "a big get" for the former New York mayor, but also presents the GOP frontrunner with some complications.

Robertson, the often-controversial founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and the Christian Coalition, says he is endorsing Giuliani because he is "a proven leader who is not afraid of what lies ahead and who will cast a hopeful vision for all Americans." The host of CBN's 700 Club made the announcement Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

~Snip~

OneNewsNow contacted several pro-family leaders to get their reaction to the Robertson endorsement. Some did not return calls, while others said they did not want to comment. One of them, a close personal friend of Robertson, said he believes the endorsement is "tragic," and that if Giuliani wins the nomination, it "will destroy the Republican Party."

Pro-family leaders mum on Robertson's endorsement of Rudy

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Since other candidates are stronger issues that Pat claims to support such as family, religion, and WOT, it is odd that he endorses the only pro abortion candidate. Obviously Pat is not too opposed to abortion. IMO, Rudy made him a great offer such as a cabinet post, ambassador, maybe even hinted at VP - having no intention of offering the latter. And Pat does have political ambitions, having once campaigned for POTUS.

Sounds like a noble effort, but I wonder if the author understood beyond the media blitz what Terri really wished and what was in the hearts of those who wanted her dead in the worst way...

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

In a recently-released book by Mt. Lake native, Paula Harder Kenemore, that independence, and that individuality, is found in the title, My Life, My Care, My Way.

The fill-in-the-blank workbook, published in 2007 by Lake Effect Media, deals with a topic not always in the forefront of our minds — an advance personal care plan.

~Snip~

Realization of the need
Harder Kenemore dedicates the book to the memory of Terri Schiavo.

Schiavo was a Florida woman who suffered brain damage and became dependent on a feeding tube after collapsing in her home on February 25, 1990, and experiencing respiratory and cardiac arrest.

After 15 years of institutionalization and a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state, her husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo, petitioned the Pinellas County Circuit Court to remove her feeding tube.

Robert and Mary Schindler, Terri Schiavo’s parents, opposed this, arguing she was conscious.

The court determined that Schiavo would not wish to continue life-prolonging measures.

The battle stretched on for seven years and included involvement by politicians and advocacy groups.
The local court decided on March 18, 2005, that her feeding tube could be removed.

Schiavo died at a Pinellas Park, Fla. hospice on March 31, 2005, at the age of 41.

The circumstances surrounding Schiavo’s life and death inspired Harder Kenemore to create a more complete tool for individuals to communicate healthcare wishes.

Handling the journey into your future

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Tragos?

George E. Tragos, a longtime criminal defense lawyer in Pinellas County, has formed the firm of Tragos & Sartes with Peter A. Sartes, and opened the practice in the SunTrust Bank building, 601 Cleveland St., Clearwater. The firm will practice criminal defense and personal injury law. Tragos had been a sole practitioner since 1985. He is board certified in criminal trial law and has worked on such high-profile cases as Terri Schiavo and Gen. Manuel Noriega's co-conspirator, Enrique Pretelt. He was formerly chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney's Office and chief of the Felony Division in the State Attorney's Office. He has represented the United States in European courts and lectures extensively on national and international criminal law for the Florida Bar and the American Bar Associations.

Sartes has had several articles published on criminal law for the Appellate Section of the Florida Bar and the Clearwater Bar Association. He is a board member of the Young Lawyers of the Florida Bar and a past president of the Young Lawyers Division of the Clearwater Bar Association. He serves on the Florida Bar's rules of judicial administration committee........

Prominent lawyer starts new firm

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That mold slime religion...

Our senses were assaulted earlier by the dark thoughts of Garry Wills. Now a rebuttal appears refreshingly in the LA Times.

..........Wills, confident that he has torn down the crucifix, attempts to place a statue of the Goddess of Reason in its place, but even there he fails. He argues the woman needs to be given the choice to decide when and whether she is carrying a fetus or a person. So, by some amazing act of cognitive voodoo, it is the woman's choice that decides when human personhood begins? Why then, restrict the woman's choice to the womb? Some philosophers, like Princeton's Peter Singer, have the courage of Wills' convictions, extending a woman's choice to end a life all the way through birth and infancy. Using his own argument, there is no logical reason Wills should deny a woman's right to infanticide. After all, qualified people disagree here too. In addition to Singer, no less a personage than James Watson, Nobel Prize-winning co-discoverer of DNA, has advocated infanticide in cases of neonatal imperfection or retardation. Wills himself takes potshots at the case of Terri Schiavo, who was obviously out of the womb. Any number of people would argue that simply making it out of the chute does not qualify one to claim that he or she possesses a human life. So, who is a person and when? If we had followed Wills' recommendation to let the mother decide, Terri Schiavo would certainly have fared better............

Give Garry Wills that old-time religion... template_bas template_bas Catholic author says abortion Op-Ed article was wrong on both faith and reason

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Judicial overreach may be the great threat illustrated by Terri's Legacy. One of the actors in this epic drama was Ken Connor who fought for Terri and advocated to Jeb who unfortunately for all humanity went limp in his arms.

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

There they go again!

Like termites gnawing away at the foundation of a building, judicial activists are eating away at the foundations of representative government in America. The damage they cause threatens our ability to govern ourselves through our elected representatives and reallocates the delicate balance of powers which our forefathers were careful to distribute among separate branches of government.

The most recent example of judges usurping legislative authority comes from Alaska where that state's Supreme Court, by a narrow 3-2 vote, struck down the 10 year old Parental Consent Act. The Act required girls 16 years and younger to get a parent's permission before receiving an abortion. Typically, such children can't go on a school field trip, join a sports team or attend an "R" rated movie without parental consent. Ah, but this case involved an attempt by the legislature to encroach on what the political left regards as its most sacred of rites, the right to abortion! And even though Alaska's House and Senate passed the Act by substantial majorities, it only took three paltry judges to torpedo the law. The judicial sages held that the Act encroached on a minor's "fundamental right to privacy" protected under the state's constitution. Parental rights, which the legislature sought to protect, were jettisoned by the Court. The Court held that a minor's decision to abort, unlike all other medical decisions, cannot be hindered by a parental "veto power.".....................................

Danger! Judicial Activists at Work!

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Sounds like some good judgment at play for once...

Thread by llevrok with thanks for the ping to davidosborne.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: November 8th, 2007 01:07 PM

A federal judge has suspended Washington’s requirement that pharmacists sell “morning-after” birth control pills. The injunction says pharmacists can refuse to sell the morning-after pill, referring a customer instead to a nearby source.

It’s part of a lawsuit by two pharmacists and a drugstore owner, who claim in a lawsuit that the state’s birth-control sales rules violated their civil rights.

The morning-after pill, sold as “Plan B,” can dramatically lower the risk of pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Some critics consider the pill tantamount to abortion, although it has no effect on women who are pregnant.

BREAKING: Judge halts state's morning-after pill rules (drug stores CAN opt out)

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Rising tide against Roe vs Wade in a thread by wagglebee.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading pro-abortion law firm has released a new report saying thirty states are likely to ban most or all abortions if the Supreme Court reverses the Roe v. Wade decision. The firm also conducted a poll finding many Americans are unaware of pro-life efforts to get abortion bans in place for when the high court overturns the case.

The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights says Roe is under attack like never before with pro-life activists using new strategies at both the state and federal level.

Pro-Abortion Law Firm: 30 States Would Likely Ban Abortion if Roe Reversed

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Wagglebee has a thread on the reaction of Pat Robertson choosing a death supporter over life.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The reaction from the pro-life community to Pat Robertson's endorsement of pro-abortion ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani for the GOP nomination for president has been strong. Several pro-life groups and leaders issued statements Wednesday and Thursday saying Robertson has "sold out" the pro-life movement.

The evangelical leader said he backed Giuliani because of other political issues -- most particularly his leadership after the terrorist attacks and against Islamic extremism.

But pro-life advocates say Giuliani's position in favor of legalized abortion and his long record opposing any limits on the practice outweighs any other political considerations.

Pro-Life Advocates Blast Pat Robertson for Rudy Giuliani Endorsement

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