Posted on 12/19/2002 10:26:29 PM PST by The Old Hoosier
| Frist a Major Shareholder in Reputed For-Profit Abortion Provider By Terence P. Jeffrey
Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.), reportedly the White House choice to succeed Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) as Senate majority leader, is a major shareholder in HCA, a for-profit hospital chain founded by his father and brother. HCA reportedly provides abortions to its customers. So now Republicans face this question: If it is disqualifying for their Senate leader to make offensive remarks interpreted as endorsing an immoral policy that denied African-Americans equal rights, is it also disqualifying for their Senate leader to make money from a hospital chain that denies unborn babies the right to life? Frist has deposited his major stockholdings in a "blind trust" chartered Dec. 28, 2000. A schedule of the original assets in this trust filed with the Senate showed holdings in 16 companies. Frist reported the value of these assets, as per Senate rules, within broad ranges (e.g. $1,001-$15,001). If the lowest possible value is assigned to each holding, Frist at that time had invested a minimum of $566,015 in 15 other companies, while investing at least $5,000,001 in HCA. That would mean that approximately 89% of his holdings were in this company. Furthermore, on its face, the trust agreement appears structured to allow the administrators to maintain this heavy concentration in HCA stock. It also specifically instructs the administrators to inform Frist if they divest entirely from any holding, including HCA. And, finally, it gives Frist the power to directly order the administrators to divest from HCA or any other holding that Frist determines "creates a conflict of interest or the appearance thereof." HCA does not trumpet its reported involvement with abortion. But, in April, Catholic Financial Services Corporation (CFSC), a mutual fund company, announced that it was starting an S&P 500 Index Fund that would "exclude companies on the abortion issue"—and that HCA was one of only six companies on the index that would be excluded on these grounds. A spokesman for the mutual fund explained to me last week that the company excludes hospital chains that perform abortions and pharmaceutical companies that deal in drugs that induce abortion. On December 18 and 19, I placed several calls to HCA corporate spokesman Jeff Prescott, to ask him directly whether abortions were performed in HCA facilities, or whether the company refuted CFSC’s determination that they were. I left him voice messages to this effect, and repeatedly told his secretary my questions. At 5:00 p.m. on the 19th, as press time approached, the secretary left me lingering on hold with no answer. When I hung up and called back, I got Prescott’s voice mail again and left him one last message. He never returned my call. I also spoke with Sen. Frist’s spokesman, Nick Smith. I explained to Smith my understanding that the terms of Frist’s "blind" trust allowed the administrators to maintain a heavy concentration in HCA, while allowing Frist to order the sale of this stock, and while also compelling the administrators to inform Frist if they divested entirely from HCA or any other holding. I cited the specific passages in the trust to this effect. I also asked Smith to clarify Frist’s position on abortion—which has confounded pro-lifers over the years—and why Frist would not divest, since he apparently could, from a company that reportedly performs abortions. When Frist first ran for the Senate in 1994, the Nashville Banner reported that he "frequently" said he "does not believe abortion should be outlawed." In a May 1994 radio interview, the Banner reported, Frist said, "It’s a very private decision." One of Frist’s Republican primary rivals, Steve Wilson, the Banner said, "demanded that Frist sell his millions of dollars in stock in the Hospital Corporation of America [HCA], which Frist’s family founded. Some of the hospitals in the chain perform abortions." Tennessee Right to Life PAC Director Sherry Holden, however, told the Banner that Frist had told her organization he was pro-life. "He said he’s against abortion, period—no exceptions, except rape and incest," said Holden. Yet, an Oct. 10, 1994, Memphis Commercial Appeal report on a debate between Frist and incumbent Sen. Jim Sasser (D.-Tenn.) said: "There were some topics on which the candidates agreed—both said they’re personally opposed to abortion but don’t think the government should prohibit abortions." I asked Smith whether Frist wanted to prohibit abortion either by constitutional amendment or by over-turning Roe v. Wade and enacting prohibitions in the states, including Tennessee. Smith responded by faxing me a statement. The White House, pro-life Republican senators, and their grassroots supporters can decide whether it is responsive: "These two issues [the HCA investment and abortion] are separate and distinct," wrote Smith. "On his own accord, by placing his assets in a federally qualified blind trust, Sen. Frist took a step above and beyond to ensure there is no conflict of interest," wrote Smith. "He believes this was the proper and responsible thing to do. He has never been employed by, or served on the board of, HCA or any of its hospitals. "As a U.S. senator who acts on public policy each and every day, his record on abortion is clear," Smith continued. "He is opposed to abortion except in the instances of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is threatened. He is opposed to federal funding of abortion. And in the Senate, he led the fight against partial-birth abortion." His Senate website includes a statement saying, "No one can deny the potential human cloning holds for increased scientific understanding. But . . . I am unable to find a compelling justification for allowing human cloning today." As Bill Clinton might say, that doesn’t rule out tomorrow—when he may be Senate majority leader. |
USA TODAY
By Julie Appleby
December 18, 2002
HCA, the largest hospital chain, said Wednesday that it has agreed to pay $648.5 million to settle final charges in a long-running federal investigation.
Including previous civil and criminal settlements, reached in 2000, the total paid by HCA will hit about $1.7 billion, by far the largest health fraud settlement in history, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Tenet, the No. 2 hospital chain, also is under government scrutiny over allegations that it raised charges to take advantage of a loophole in Medicare law and garner higher-than-average payments.
The HCA investigation grew out of lawsuits filed by former employees, starting in 1993, and focused on whether the company improperly billed Medicare for hundreds of millions of dollars.
During the investigation, HCA was acquired by Columbia Healthcare and continued its rapid expansion under founder Richard Scott. He resigned in 1997 amid mounting evidence that HCA had kept two sets of books, one to show the government and one with actual expenses listed. Thomas Frist — a co-founder of HCA and brother of Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. — replaced Scott and remains on the board.
Under the agreement, HCA must pay the government $631 million, plus interest, and pay $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies. As previously announced, HCA also has to pay $250 million to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims.
HCA said it expects to record a charge of $445 million in the fourth quarter to cover settlement costs. It also expects to record an additional charge to cover legal fees brought by attorneys for the whistle-blowers. "We are pleased to have successfully negotiated a settlement," said Jack Bovender Jr., HCA's chief executive officer.
Critics of the settlement say HCA executives involved in the scandal deserved jail time. "When people engage in crimes this large, it is not enough to just settle for large amounts of money," says Sidney Wolfe of advocacy group Public Citizen. "Examples need to be set, and people need to go to jail."
I might have bought a candy bar from someone that used the procedes to off their kid. Frist's involvement is substantial. As a $5M family investor, he carries weight. Folks can go their and have their children, younger than a certain age offed, but are sent out into the street to light up a cigarette.
I think if you can't see the difference there, you have a problem that I won't solve by arguing with you.
I know of no direct funding for such, only indirect. How is fed $s spent to cover abortion expenses?
And it won't be you who decides whether my views or wrong or right, thank goodness.
But I will tell you this, when I read these self-serving posts of you one-issue only: abortion people, I realize that you are incapable of seeing just how judgmental and offensive you are and how you manage to turn people off.
Even if people agreed with you, if they read your words, they wouldn't want to be associated with you.
I don't think anyone has been as judgemental on this thread as you have.
The Tennessean
By BILL LEWIS, Staff Writer
December 19, 2002
Attorneys for the whistle-blowers who accused HCA Inc. of Medicare fraud say they were within weeks of taking testimony from HCA co-founder Tommy Frist Jr. and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jack Bovender Jr. when the company agreed to a final settlement.
Nashville-based HCA announced an agreement with the Justice Department yesterday to pay another $631 million to settle all remaining charges that it submitted false Medicare claims, paid kickbacks to doctors and over-charged at wound-care centers at its hospitals. The company also will pay $250 million to resolve questions about unprocessed expense claims it submitted from 1993 to 2001.
If the settlement is approved, HCA will have agreed to pay more than $1.7 billion since 2000 to settle all charges against it. It will also pay a total of $17.5 million to states that claimed their Medicaid programs were overcharged. Tennessee will collect an undetermined portion of that money after a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe is completed, bureau spokeswoman Jeanne Broadwell said.
Before the settlement was reached between HCA and the Justice Department, whistle-blower attorneys were preparing to come to Nashville to depose Bovender and Frist in January and February. They were here earlier this month interviewing other executives and wanted to ask HCA's leaders what they knew about the falsified Medicare bills the company was accused of submitting to the federal government.
HCA, the attorneys suggested, tossed in the towel to avoid the spectacle of Frist, a physician and an icon in the Nashville business community, being questioned about the former business practices of the company. He founded what is now HCA in 1968 with his father, Dr. Thomas Frist Sr., and businessman Jack Massey, both deceased.
Many of the questions, and the executives' answers, eventually would make their way into public court records, the lawyers observed.
''I speculate Bovender and Frist didn't want to be put under oath to explain what they knew (about) the worms under the rocks that were being uncovered,'' said Stephen Meagher, a San Francisco attorney with a firm that represented two whistle-blowers.
HCA spokesman Jeff Prescott said the company agreed to settle because it was ''comfortable'' with the amount it would have to pay.
''It was about the numbers,'' he said.
Peter Chatfield, another of the team of 40 private attorneys who said they worked more than 75,000 hours and spent about $30 million pursuing the company, said testimony shows illegal behavior started before HCA was acquired and merged into Columbia/HCA in 1993. Whistle-blowers, by law, can collect up to 25% of the money the government recovered in the case.
The combined company was led by Richard Scott, who was ousted in 1997 after federal investigators raided 19 hospitals and offices. The board brought back Frist and Bovender to restore the company's luster. They fired executives and instituted ethics guidelines, among other changes.
Scott's hard-charging leadership is blamed for many of the company's problems, but the whistle-blower attorneys wanted to ask about earlier business practices. One lawsuit over false Medicare claims, they noted, was filed in January 1993, 10 months before Scott's Columbia bought Hospital Corp. of America, as HCA was then known.
''The notion that Rick Scott is the lone-wolf bad guy is incorrect,'' Chatfield said.
In a statement, Bovender said the company is stronger.
''Today we are a stronger company with a corporate integrity agreement, a corporate compliance initiative that has set the standard for many in our industry and a culture that is focused on the delivery of quality patient care in the communities we serve,'' he said.
Wall Street welcomed details of a final settlement. Shares of HCA closed yesterday at $42.90, up $1.39.
The settlement still must win approval of senior government officials, a powerful senator with a reputation for championing whistle-blowers and the whistle-blowers themselves.
None of that can be taken for granted.
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, who sponsored 1986 amendments that strengthened the federal False Claims Act, also known as the whistle-blower law, delayed a settlement last month between HCA and the government that he thought was too favorable to the company.
The Iowa Republican is reviewing the latest settlement.
''The most important question is unanswered. That's whether the taxpayers will get their money back from any fraud perpetrated by HCA,'' said Grassley, the incoming chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. ''This settlement can't be a Christmas gift to HCA and a lump of coal for the taxpayers.''
The whistle-blowers also can object and ask a court to block the settlement. If that happened, the case would resume, Chatfield said.
The family background seems to indicate that he's qualified to be the Senate Majority leader. I mean, this is normal, right?
The hospital is not an abortion clinic. You are either clueless or dishonest to insinuate he is getting profit "directly from abortions." In fact this article you posted doesn't even have evidence that abortions are performed there at all or if they are, what numbers they are performed and the circumstances.
Until you have some evidence to back up what you are saying, stop insulting our intelligence, please.
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