Life-saver: The mother's hug that kickstarted Rachael's heart
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.
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The resentment is apparent on blogs that chronicle the mortgage crisis. It has some Republican lawmakers worried about a backlash.
At the blog HousingPanic ( http://housingpanic.com), the agreement is equated to the attempt in 2005 to save Terri Schiavo, a woman who was in a vegetative state. "Washington politicians thought intervening in the Terri Schiavo affair would be good politics, too. Housing Gambler Bailout is the new Terri Schiavo," the site proclaims.
Those Who Avoided Risk Call Plan A Raw Deal
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In an interview with the Argentine Catholic Informational Agency (AICA), Bishop Martinez noted that people often ask him "what can be done to prevent these women from having more children...because what are we going to do with more indigenous people?"
"The comment is revealing and lamentably expresses the thinking of many people," said Martinez. "We can make a literal parallel with some officials, ministers, organizations...who habitually affirm 'what we can do to make poor mothers have fewer children, because what are we going to do with so many poor people later?'"
Argentine Bishop Denounces Sterilizations to Fight Poverty
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TORONTO, December 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The American author of several highly acclaimed books on the life issues, Wesley J. Smith, spoke to the issue of "Future Concerns" at the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition's international symposium in Toronto, Canada on December 1st, 2007.
Wesley Smith Warns Symposium About Dangerous Shifts in Medical Ethics and Practice
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Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a new interview, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney reiterated his position when it comes to embryonic stem cell research. The former governor says he opposes the specific creation and destruction of human life to advance science but he says he would support destroying human embryos from fertility clinics.
Mitt Romney Backs Some Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Opposes Funding
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It was to be the one and only cuddle Carolyn Isbister would have with her tiny, premature daughter.
Rachael had been born minutes before - weighing a mere 20oz - and had only minutes to live. Her heart was beating once every ten seconds and she was not breathing................
Doctors gave my 20oz baby up for dead ... but I saved her life with this cuddle
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From post #515:
“By contrast he sees Barack Obama as a candidate whose ideas about the use of religion in politics are just right.”
“Just right” wouldn’t cause Obama to do things like this:
“Obama has spent a scant two years in the Senate but served eight years at the Illinois capitol in Springfield.
During that time, Obama voted AGAINST (emphasis mine) a bill that received national attention and would protect babies born alive after botched abortions.”
http://www.lifenews.com/nat2877.html
I don’t know if it’s Obama’s religion, or if he doesn’t follow his religion, but Obama voted for evil, and even an extremely ignorant person can see that a born-alive baby is not a “glob of tissue.”
Patients for mental health including children are getting poor treatment. (long article).
George Soros is for a utopia where he reigns supreme. He uses the left who think he's helping them. He's just using them.
The priorities in these United States are backwards, aren't they?
Obama is a way for Oprah to become the de facto president without running.
Do we really want Oprah to be the one behind the curtain? Money and power is what's ruining this country.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7133867.stm
ONE OF MANY CORRUPT FLA JUDGES:
www.judgegeorgegreer.com and there's this: www.michaelschiavo.org
What happened to Terri is still a felony called MURDER.
Life-saver: The mother's hug that kickstarted Rachael's heart
Missed it earlier.
The same Associated Press-Ipsos national poll that had Huckabee trailing only former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani showed that Thompson had fallen 8 percentage points since last month. He had dropped from second place to fifth.
Thompson, who was similarly unaware about the Supreme Court's ruling about the Terri Schiavo case, has failed to rally social conservatives behind him because of his work lobbying for a family planning group, as well as conflicting statements regarding issues such as abortion.
Thompson Criticizes Huckbee Over NIE Report, Says Iran Still Biggest U.S.Threat
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Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- Former Washington Governor Booth Gardner has fired the opening salvo in a new campaign to approve a state law making it the second to legalize assisted suicide. LifeNews.com profiled his efforts back in October and the New York Times granted him a recent interview to promote his cause.
~Snip~
Gardner framed the debate in terms of wanting to control his own life -- especially at its end.
Ironically, just months ago Gardner underwent deep brain surgery for Parkinson's Disease, which could possibly be used to help incapacitated patients like Terri Schiavo.
However, he said that the law wouldn't go far enough for him because he wants patients like him who are not terminally ill to be able to kill themselves with the help of a physician.
But, bioethics watchdog Wesley J. Smith says the former governor is ignoring the dangers and problems associated with allowing doctors to have a role in killing their patients................
Washington Advocate for Assisted Suicide Launches Legalization Campaign
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There is strong, healthy, and ongoing debate about when life as a human being begins and ends. End-of-life definitions involve organ system function (or lack thereof), including non-reflexive brain functions.
How would this relate to the "personhood" of a fertilized egg? Would that mean we'd all risk dying like Terry Schiavo because brain function no longer counts? Would a frozen fertilized egg in a fertility clinic qualify for government assistance and AFDC? What happens to the availability of birth control?
Religion shouldn't control abortion
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Asked about congressional action in the Terri Schiavo case, a particularly important event for the religious right, Thompson responded: "That's going back in history. I don't remember the details of it." However, as armchair pundits are screaming that Thompson is a disappointment, says Ornstein, "he has not exactly plummeted in the polls."
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As one participant said, "The shortest distance between a person and the truth is a story."
Soft-spoken Alison Davis, representing No Less Human, a disability rights group in England, told her story. Because of her disability, she has constant pain and is dependent on morphine for relief. She told of times when she had wanted to die due to suffering and depression. If the UK had allowed assisted suicide, she doubted she would be here today. Davis emphasized the danger of legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide: "Pain control is available, but it takes time and effort. Why bother if killing the patient is equally acceptable?"
Henk Reitsema, an articulate young man from the Netherlands representing Cry for Life, told the compelling story of his grandfather's death by involuntary euthanasia in a Dutch nursing home. He said, "The way my grandfather died might be described as ‘palliation with the side effect of death,'" which is a common way of imposed death in his country. We "seem to have made the suffering of pain the only crime worth punishing with the death penalty," declared Reitsema.
The familiar story of Terri Schindler-Schiavo's dehydration death in a Florida hospice was related by her brother Bobby Schindler. There was not a dry eye in the room as he described Terri's last days and the suffering her family endured and continues to endure because of her cruel death.
Dr. Paul Byrne's topic was "brain death." He told of several cases that compelled him to begin evaluating whether "brain death" is true death, or not. The first was in 1975. Joseph, a premature infant, had been on a ventilator for six weeks and an EEG was interpreted as "consistent with cerebral death." Dr. Byrne did not turn off the ventilator; rather, he continued treatment. Joseph is now married with children and works as a fireman and paramedic.........
Historic Symposium Focuses on Opposing Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia
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Now, we could talk about the blunders that ensued from the arrogance in Washington. We could talk about the Social Security reform bill, we could talk about the Abramoff scandal, we could talk about Terri Schiavo, and we could talk all night about the president’s stupid amnesty plan. I’ll be happy to take questions about any of that later, but right now it’s important to concentrate on the sheer, stupid arrogance of the Republicans in Washington.
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thanks for your updates.
BUMP
Hi, BB, thanks for posting that ... sweet baby ping.
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