Posted on 10/25/2007 7:52:37 AM PDT by 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.
Hey, did you hear the one about the woman who aborted her kid so she could save the planet?
That's no joke, but Darwin must be chuckling somewhere......
Women Who Have Abortions to Save the Planet Are the Selfish Ones
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WASHINGTON, November 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Excerpts from a sexually explicit book published for children aged eight to thirteen have been banned from Internet sites and from a Washington state prison for its “inappropriate content”. The book includes graphic depictions of genitalia, different forms of contraception, tampons and menstrual pads, and depicts people engaged in sex. It explains non-vaginal sex such as oral and anal sex. It has little to say about virginity (the word does not appear in the index), abstinence or chastity.
Planned Parenthood-Endorsed Book for Young Children too “Sexually Explicit” for Prisoners
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Thread by wagglebee.
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WASHINGTON, November 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-life advocates have known for some time that a major aspect of the abortion industry is providing the tissue from aborted children for profit for scientific and medical research. Cybercast News Service (CNS) revealed this week that this type of research has become extremely common and is being paid for by US taxpayers.
CNS reports that experiments using human/animal hybrid mice, bred to have no immune systems, and injected with tissue and cells from aborted children, have been paid for with federal funds for more than twenty years.
The National Cancer Institute explains that "immature human" immune tissues and/or immune cells are injected or implanted into these mice that are unable to reject the tissue. But CNS reveals that "immature" is a euphemism for tissue obtained from aborted children or "abortuses".
Much of the foetal tissue comes from late-term abortions committed at 17-23 weeks' gestation. CNS quotes one 2005 study, published in the journal Blood said, "Mice were surgically implanted with human bone chips of fetal femur or tibia from 19- to 23-week gestation human abortuses ...."
Use of Abortion Victim's Body Parts For Research Has Become Major Industry
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Thread by wagglebee.
In 1996, Congressman Henry Hyde stood up before his colleagues to argue in favor of overriding President Bill Clinton’s veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Congressman Hyde’s skill as an orator rivaled the skills of any marksman or swordsman...........
Congressman Henry Hyde Leaves a Lasting Pro-Life Legacy to Follow
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God Bless Terri, Maura, T’wit, The Spotted Owl, Johnny (salvation navy). This post is in memory of Terri and her friends who cherished their lives and liberty too. I miss them all but while they were here, they were all kind and Good Samaritans.
Henry Hyde reminded me of a founding father. I’d see him on c-span and pictured him in a tri-corner hat, buckled shoes and the wardrobe of the day. RIP, HH.
http://www.floridabaptistwitness.com/3627.article
Pretty picture. Happy Birthday, Terri.
Happy birthday, Terri.
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TORONTO, December 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the first International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Toronto this past weekend there was a true coalition of diverse individuals with often diametrically opposed views on abortion, faith, homosexuality and other issues. However, they were all generally united in the common belief that the world has now entered a very dangerous phase of increasingly approved killing of handicapped, seriously ill and otherwise vulnerable persons via euthanasia or assisted suicide.
There were religious people, atheists, pro-life leaders fighting abortion and others strongly in favour of abortion, pro-family and pro-homosexual advocates. However, those issues were largely set aside for most of the two day conference as some of the very best speakers made awesome presentations on the issues they all came to discuss - euthanasia, assisted suicide and directly related other issues, such as the wide variety of definitions of brain death.
Although the above might sound rather macabre, the speakers and attendees were anything but doom and gloom types. On the contrary there was a very alive, joyful spirit and determination to fight this latest advance of the culture of death.
Three speakers gave their presentations from their wheelchairs. Their personal witness to their determination to resist the discrimination that often wants to end their lives as not worthy to be lived was instructive about the reality of what is now happening in our hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions.
Hospitals across North America and Europe have become battlegrounds where relatives of patients wage war against hospital doctors, staff negligence and increasingly willfull deprivation of life sustaining treatment. After hearing some of the talks and from discussions in the halls with participants, the realization quickly developed that no relative should be left alone in any hospital or nursing home without regular visits and lots of questions from family regarding treatment and nutrition and hydration being provided.
As for anyone who might have been in favour of euthanasia for themselves or others before arriving at the conference (as more than a few anti-abortion people are - especially the elderly) it would have been difficult to retain that mistaken view after hearing the presentations and discussions at the conference.
Bobby Schindler moved many participants to tears with the story about his sister Terri Schiavo's forced death by removal of food and water and the terrible lack of support from many elements of the establishment, including local bishops and other clergy.
Wesley Smith gave a sweeping overview of current developments on the issues. Dr. Paul Byrne generated intense discussions for hours afterwards over his disturbing revelations about what are often fraudulent, arbitrary definitions of brain death designed to facilitate quicker removal of vital organs for transplants from living people.
Barbara Farlow related the devastating story of her tiny handicapped daughter's death from deliberate negligence by the medical staff at a prominent Toronto region children's hospital. Physicians had decided that the baby's life was not worth living despite her family's constant care and overflowing love for her................
International Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Conference an Impressive Event
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As Sulmasy notes, most people’s reaction to the prospect of being kept alive in a condition like Terri Schiavo’s is one of horror. That moral instinct has long been recognized in Catholic teaching, as has the distinction between removing feeding tubes from someone in PVS, thus allowing him to die, and intending his death.
It is hard to imagine a step that could discredit the church’s opposition to euthanasia more than Rome’s insistence that those afflicted with PVS are essentially condemned to spend the last ten, fifteen, or twenty years of their lives-even against their own wishes-in such a condition. Some may consider this a call for moral heroism on the part of PVS patients, their families, and the wider community, but the church has never taught that heroism is morally obligatory.
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Popular confusion, sensationalistic journalism, and crazy statements on all sides of the case gripped the Italian media for weeks before and after Welby’s death. Vatican officials said that it would be morally licit to stop the ventilator if Welby and his doctor were to decide that the ventilator had become an extraordinary means of care. But by declaring his intent to euthanize himself, Welby had put the church in a difficult position. Finally, the church felt pressed to deny him burial in order to affirm its teaching against suicide. The case was bigger in Italy than Terri Schiavo’s was in the United States.
This controversy-among others-formed part of the backdrop to the Vatican’s September statement on the morality of providing feeding tubes to patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). Writing in response to questions from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) regarding the treatment of PVS patients, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) ruled that, in such cases, feeding tubes must be considered, “in principle, an ordinary means of preserving life.” The statement seemed to clarify John Paul II’s much-debated 2004 allocution on PVS, in which he referred to artificial nutrition and hydration as “normal care.” Since that statement was delivered in the throes of the Schiavo debate, one could perhaps be forgiven for believing the CDF is responding mainly to the U.S. situation. Yet Vatican statements on PVS must be understood in their proper context. More than most Americans appreciate, that context is shaped by European politics-especially Italian politics and the broader European debate about euthanasia.
Preserving Life? The Vatican & PVS
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During the last two months of life, Dorothy Glas endured so many blood tests her thin arms turned black and blue. The 85-year-old woman submitted to probes of her abdomen. Radiologists scanned her brain, kidneys, thyroid and heart. A psychiatrist screened her for depression. "My mother told him, 'Of course I'm depressed! I'm dying. How can you be happy?'" said her daughter, Meredith Snedeker of Hamilton Square. Glas withered to 80 pounds from an intestinal infection and, after a fall, entered the hospital in July for the final time, complaining of dizziness and a cut foot. The medicine revved up and doctors at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton ordered a flurry of tests: X-rays, CT scans, echocardiograms and scopes of her digestive tract....
A troubling abundance of care, Despite efforts, state's sick don't live longer
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Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll in Iowa not only shows Hillary Clinton losing support to Barack Oabama but it shows female Democrats prefer the pro-abortion Illinois senator over Clinton. The poll results are surprising given the fact that Emily's List, the wealthiest pro-abortion group in the nation, launched a major election effort on her behalf.
As LifeNews.com twice reported, Emily's List started a campaign last month to rally women voters in Iowa around Clinton.
Emily's List unveiled a new web site and promoted it with online via ads on leading search engines and on web sites women view such as those on yoga or health issues.
But a new Des Moines Register poll shows the campaign apparently isn't working.........
Pro-Abortion Group's Efforts Flop, Hillary Clinton Drops Among Iowa Women
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Thread by jaydubya2 with thanks to wagglebee.
For the second straight year, Cook County taxpayers are set to pay for a record number of abortions at county health facilities.
The dramatic increase at Stroger Hospital runs counter to state and national trends. Since 2003, abortions at Stroger Hospital have increased 78 percent -- to about 4,000 this year from 2,243.
The county has more than doubled the number of abortions performed each week since the service was reinstated in 1992 -- to a current average of 77 a week from a self-imposed limit of 30 a week................
Abortions at Stroger up 78% since 2003
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............."The Day Donny Herbert Woke Up" is a speedy read, especially if you're a miracle junkie or curious about brain trauma stories. And it isn't just about a heroic firefighter felled in the line of duty. There's also a 19th century priest up for sainthood and a portrait of a Buffalo, N.Y., Catholic enclave with close-knit families made up of seven, 10 or 11 kids. ~Snip~
The Day Donny Herbert Woke Up... A True Story
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Mexico City, Mexico (LifeNews.com) -- They started with abortion and now lawmakers in the Mexico City legislative assembly have approved a measure that could pave the way to allowing assisted suicide or euthanasia. They signed off on a bill that allows terminally ill patients to refuse medical treatment.
The Mexico City Congress voted unanimously for the bill, which would allow terminally ill patients to refuse any medical care that would prolong or extend their lives.
Family members could make the decision in cases of patients who are unable to make their own choice -- hearkening to the international debate about Terri Schiavo.
The legislation says physicians who want to withhold food and water from patients -- which is not considered extraordinary medical care by pro-life advocates -- would be given legal protection...............
Mexico City Lawmakers Approve Passive Euthanasia Bill for Terminally Ill
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Planned Parenthood Federation Contribution Request (Mail)
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