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.

Terri and the candidates part 1:

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Tampa, FL (LifeNews.com) -- The following is the text of the letter Terri Schiavo's brother Bobby sent to each of the candidates for president:

My name is Robert Schindler, Jr. and I am the brother of Terri Schindler Schiavo. Following Terri’s death, my family and I have been working full time to bring attention to the plight of the medically vulnerable and disabled in our society.

I am writing to request you regarding the issues surrounding my sister's death and, even more critically, what this means for the 47 million persons with disabilities here in the United States.

Most people base their opinions regarding Terri’s case solely upon what was reported in the media — a frequently unreliable source. My sister was not dying and this was not an end of life issue. It was the direct and deliberate killing of a person deemed “unworthy of life” by some because she was cognitively disabled.

I would like to respectfully ask for an opportunity to meet with you to provide you with accurate information regarding my sister's case and its broader political implications. I am not attempting to re-try her case, but it is clear that this issue did not die with Terri and is not going to go away or be settled in the public's eyes for many years to come. For your information, I am also requesting meetings with other presidential candidates as their schedules permit, and I plan to issue public statements regarding their responses. It is vitally important that people know where their candidates stand on issues of life and death.

In our effort to share the truth about my sister’s case, and to protect other vulnerable innocents like her both here and abroad, my family has been invited to speak in upwards of 150 cities, in eight countries and on several continents since my sister’s death. Because our nation has such a tremendous impact upon world opinion, I believe it is incumbent upon our U.S. elected officials to pass legislation to safeguard the lives of our disabled citizens. I would be most grateful to you for the opportunity to speak with you personally about this most crucial civil rights issue. I will be in contact with your office shortly to see if such a meeting is possible.

Thank you for your kind consideration.

Sincerely,
Robert Schindler, Jr.

Letter From Terri Schiavo's Brother Bobby to Presidential Candidates

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Terri and the candidates part 2:

Thanks to LifeNews for this coverage...

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Tampa, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Terri Schiavo's brother Bobby Schindler met with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney prior to the GOP debate that will be held tonight in Florida. Schindler has extended an invitation to all of the Republican candidates to meet and discuss his sister's story and end-of-life issues like euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Terri's family talked about how a meeting with a presidential candidate is incredibly important to help shape their views on these key topics.

"Given that the Presidential candidates are repeatedly asked to comment on the circumstances and outcome of Terri Schiavo's case, Mr. Schindler sent a letter to every candidate requesting a meeting," the Schindler family told LifeNews.com in a statement.

The family said Bobby hoped "to discuss the implications of Terri's case on the right to life of people living with disabilities."

Romney is the only candidate to accept an invitation to meet with Terri's brother to this point.

During the meeting, Schindler asked Governor Romney to commit to standing behind the tens of thousands of people with disabilities in America.

After Terri's former husband starved and dehydrated her to death, disabled and elderly patients fear that they may be among those denied food and water against their will simply because someone may deem their life "unworthy of living," Schindler said.

Terri's family said Bobby "is grateful to Governor Romney for taking the time to meet with him. He is hopeful that each Presidential candidate will contact him to arrange similar meetings in the near future."

Following Terri's euthanasia death, her family started a foundation to help disabled and elderly patients find legal support and appropriate medical care.Related web sites:
Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation - http://www.terrisfight.org

Terri Schiavo's Brother Meets With Mitt Romney Before Republican Debate

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This thread from shrinkermd is a hot button especially when one considers the years "they" kept Terri who was in surprisingly good health, in a hospice until they succeeded.

Lively discussion thread.

Thanks, LilAngel, for the ping. Wish I could have linked to it earlier.

Hundreds of hospice providers across the country are facing the catastrophic financial consequence of what would otherwise seem a positive development: their patients are living longer than expected.

Over the last eight years, the refusal of patients to die according to actuarial schedules has led the federal government to demand that hospices exceeding reimbursement limits repay hundreds of millions of dollars to Medicare.

The charges are assessed retrospectively, so in most cases the money has long since been spent on salaries, medicine and supplies. After absorbing huge assessments for several years, often by borrowing at high rates, a number of hospice providers are bracing for a new round that they fear may shut their doors.

In Hospice Care, Longer Lives Mean Money Lost (Patients Refuse To Die)

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Rudy may not do well in Florida, they say. Sorry, Charlie. It is not my spelling gaffe on Clearwater, but sounds ok somehow.

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-- LEARWATER, Fla. - Sliding in the polls, Rudy Giuliani is no longer so sure he can win the Republican nomination by taking Florida after losing earlier small states that traditionally determine the nominees.

~Snip~

During Wednesday's debate, Republicans saw the Rudy they've been doing their best to pretend did not exist. He wasn't the crime-fighting, terrorist-bashing, smiling hero they've come to like so much.

Instead, he was the gun-grabbing, abortion-supporting philanderer that Republicans don't waste much time with - especially here in Florida where conservatives turned the Terri Schiavo case into a national cause.

But if Giuliani gets his charming swagger back, his Florida strategy might still work, especially since just one week later a host of other big states - including New York, New Jersey and California, all where he fares well - will decide who the GOP nominee will be.

COASTING INTO FLA. MAY COST GIULIANI

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The squeaking is not from mice but from the news puppies...

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** Has the network apologized or even explained why the wife of its chief campaign correspondent, Carl Cameron, was campaigning for then-candidate George W. Bush? Not to my knowledge.

** And how about that Dr. Hammesfahr whom Hannity touted as a Nobel Prize nominee able to rehabilitate Terri Schiavo? Not only did Hannity not bother to find out that Hammesfahr’s “nomination” was informal and not official but he also never took the trouble to investigate Hammesfahr’s medical record. It seems the good doctor had been reprimanded, placed on probation and fined by the Florida Board of Medicine for charging a patient for services not rendered. Although this information was revealed by us, by Media Matters and was covered on Alan Colmes’ radio show, Sean Hannity has not, as far as I know, corrected the record on Dr. Hammesfahr. Indeed, the FOX News transcript of the interview still retains the misinformation.

While Concealing Guest Tom DeLayÂ’s Federal Indictment For Money Laundering And Forgetting Instances Of His Own Deceit, Hannity Sermonizes About Media Integrity

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Down syndrome and the perfect child in a thread by marthamaria...

Thanks to TheSarce for the ping.

All across the land this fall, people have been gathering to promote awareness and acceptance of Down syndrome. Central to their message is the idea that people with the condition are valued family members who lead happy, fulfilling lives. At the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, scientists have been meeting to develop research agendas to improve the lives of people with Down syndrome, the genetic condition that results when a person has three copies of the 21st chromosome instead of the usual pair. But in the places where medicine is practiced, a very different and less benevolent awareness of Down syndrome reigns. As a result of recent changes in technology and standards of care, women are undergoing prenatal diagnostics for Down syndrome in unprecedented numbers -- often multiple times during their pregnancies. When the condition is detected, they are having abortions at rates that are thought to approach 90 percent. Those of us who actually have relationships with people with Down syndrome, and who see them achieving and thriving in their communities, view this paradox as baffling at best, tragic at worst. We cherish our friends and family members and think their unexpected extra chromosome is not the most important thing about them. And we worry that the relentlessness of genetic testing is amplifying stigma and bias against the 350,000 flesh-and-blood Americans who have the condition, as well as people who have other conditions that are now or soon will be prenatally discoverable. In recent conversations with obstetricians and gynecologists, I've found that we family members aren't the only ones with these fears. Physicians say they're disturbed by mounting demands from prospective parents for nothing less than the "perfect" child,. ..

If the Test Says Down Syndrome

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For any who harbor lingering doubts about the effect of Terri's Legacy on those who hate us, who hate America, one need go no further than the Opposite of Edification (OpEdNews) article, and the link they include to a career America hater from Pakistan. Terri is a symbol of why they hate us so much.

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" As November 2007 draws to a close, it will be full three years since American forces razed the Iraqi city of Fallujah to ground. It was in November 2004 that George Bush’s forces played havoc with that city and its unfortunate inhabitants in the name of God. While the American media chose to remain blind to the utter horror of it all, busy as it was with keeping a close watch over the life and death of Terri Schindler Schiavo, Dr. Hafidh al-Dulaimi, the head of “the Commission for the Compensation of Fallujah citizens” reported the destruction that American troops inflicted on Fallujah.

REMEMBERING THE HORROR AND SHAME OF FALLUJAH

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Haleigh Poutre update...

With "The Republican" of Massachusetts in the forefront once again we have an update on proceedings on the case.

Thanks, BB, for the tip.

SPRINGFIELD - The lawyer for Jason D. Strickland said he will ask Judge James J. Collins to remove himself from the high-profile case alleging assault and battery on a child with serious injury to Haleigh Poutre, Strickland's stepdaughter.

Alan J. Black, Strickland's lawyer, told Collins Tuesday during a contentious hearing on the case, that he is still working on a motion to request Collins to step down from the case.

Strickland's previous lawyer, Greg T. Schubert, had also filed a motion for Collins to step down, but it was never heard because Schubert withdrew from the case...........

New judge sought in Poutre case

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Well, maybe, maybe not...

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.........................The need for young people to have a living will or power of attorney became evident in the Terri Schiavo case in 2005.

Schiavo, of Florida, died after a long battle between her spouse and parents about whether to go forward with life-prolonging treatment.

She was admitted to the hospital at age 26 after losing consciousness due to complications from an eating disorder and remained in a vegetative state for 15 years.

After Schiavo's feeding tube was removed, she died two weeks later.

Becker said had Schiavo drafted a living will, it might have prevented the arguments between her husband and parents because the decision would not have been up to them.

"Having a living will is like saying, 'This is what I want to happen to me if this happens,'" Becker said. "Having the power of attorney is appointing someone to make those decisions if you're not able to.".................

Mother says even young adults need wills

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LilAngel pings us to a fascinating topic, one which would surely, as LilAngel notes, be of great interest to T'wit.

A recent AP news report has concluded, after compiling the results of numerous studies over the years, that there is a strong and disturbing link between severe child abuse and non-traditional family environments. In the article' words:

"[Scholars and caseworkers] note an ever increasing share of America's children grow up in homes without both biological parents, and say the risk of child abuse is markedly higher in the nontraditional family structures."

~Snip~

I am not sure what is going over at the progressive AP, but the report's conclusions demonstrate in utterly stark terms a fundamental truth that conservatives have held dear since the time of Aristotle (or, if you are from China, since at least the time of Confucius): Natural Law. I was told once by a very smart professor that Aristotle was much smarter than I was, and he was right. He also told me that Aristotle would resurface every now and then, in the form of nature, to remind us in often ugly ways, of our excesses, and of our proper limits. We know, for example, that study after study demonstrates a link between abortion and depression, and abortion and suicide. We also know now that there are studies showing strong connections between abortion and breast cancer. Aristotle's great Christian interpreter, St. Thomas Aquinas, argued that divorce was also unnatural, and that two parent families were natural:

Natural Law and Child Abuse

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1933549/posts Communism A Failure, Says Former Estonian PM

There’s a report called “Bloody Harvest” compiled by two Canadians detailing the theft of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners to supply China’s lucrative organ transplant industry.

Pardon my not using html. If I make the above quote italics, which is easy enough, then I have to use an html code for the link, which is not so easy. I can’t copy/paste, so I might have made some typos in transcribing. Please just pretend not to notice. Go read the rest of it. There’s some important stuff there.

Today would have been Terri Schindler Schiavo's 44th birthday. Today we look beyond the petty perps to the core of evil which shortened her life with vile force. We are in perpetual battle against a greater force than those mere minor functionaries of evil.

LilAngel goes to the core of the leftist mind, the communist mind and allied enemies of those of us pro-life and pro-decency. The old quote comes to mind immediately and whether one credits it with Benjamin Franklin, or Albert Einstein (A bit leftist himself..) it rings true and applicable here.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Benjamin Franklin

In this instance the left always pursues communism/socialism as the answer long after proven monstrous failures just as if the next time it will work. The numbers of failed attempts in this vein are equally monsrous in numbers and effects. How could a whole faction of life be insane? Maybe it hints at the meaning of evil.

Where this touches upon us is the link shown to us by LilAngel to one result of this insanity/evil. The thread is by JACKRUSSELL

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This means that this is a country that needs our attention, and the people who are fighting for freedom and for human rights need our support. The question of different atrocities must be raised. The Communist Party is an evil force.

We must remember what has happened to China. This beautiful culture, a country with such a rich culture and history, how much of it was destroyed during communist rule—it's really one of the greatest destructions that has taken place in human civilization.

NTDTV: There's a report called "Bloody Harvest" compiled by two Canadians detailing the theft of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners to supply China's lucrative organ transplant industry. Some people find this so horrifying they don't want to believe it's true. What do you say to them?

Laar: I remember this very well when I lived under communism. It was very sad to see how the world even then ignored the same question. They said "No, no, it's overestimated, it couldn't be so bad. Such evil doesn't exist." How many people believed that the concentration camps and the holocaust existed?

I remember very well how we hoped that somebody would raise their voice in the free world to really say loudly what is happening in the Soviet communist system. We were not listened to, we were not heard for a long time.
Ronald Reagan was heavily criticized in the west when he called the Soviet Union an "evil empire." But for us it was a very positive message, and it was enormously important in encouraging people to initiate action against the dictatorship.

Communism A Failure, Says Former Estonian PM

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Kim Mance minces by astounding us with this double whammy of leftist logic. All, from where else, the Puffington Host...

I am simply whelmed.

Also, I am very sorry about the victims in her family and the victim she is of the trap of leftist logic.

The neo-con talking heads still term caring social policies as "liberal." But that's peculiar considering they find it virtuous for women to stay at home to raise children (and not accrue social security) -- yet they find providing state-sponsored access to healthcare for those very same children to be somehow contemptuous.

Or, in the case of Terri Schiavo, would keeping her alive been less heroic to conservatives if it weren't an insurance company paying for her care? Perhaps that would have been deemed government intervention rather than right-to-life?

Double-Whammy: U.S. Healthcare Hits Us Up One Side and Down the Other

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