the largest case of Medicare Fraud in history in the United States

[onethatcares]

does not have a dollar number. The only thing findable is the penalty of 1.7billion dollars assessed against HCA.

Does anyone know the amount that HCA defrauded the taxpayers out of before the whistleblowers came in?

[csziggy]

1. Rick Scott should - why don't reporters ask him at every press conference? n/t

[Dappleganger]

2. Rick Scott's too busy doubling our state deficit

to answer reporters' questions.

[SharonAnn]

4. And don't forget that the Frist family bought the hospital chain and was also liable.

[Horse with no Name]

3. I doubt even the government knows

Columbia/HCA had their tentacles extended into every facet of healthcare.

Good background:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/medicare/july-dec97/medicare_fraud_7-31a.html

>>>snip
MARGARET WARNER: Three executives of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida on charges of defrauding the government for over a decade. The indictments revealed in court papers unsealed yesterday is just the latest blow for the nation's largest private for-prof it healthcare company. The three men are top officers in Columbia/HCA's Florida operations. They're charged with conspiring to overbill Medicare and Medicaid, the federal healthcare programs for the elderly and the poor, by more than $1.7 million.

Columbia/HCA owns and operates nearly 350 hospitals, as well as 150 outpatient surgery centers and more than 570 home health care centers. It operates in 36 states, as well as England, Switzerland, and Spain. The company generates annual revenues of more than $20 billion. Just nine years ago, Columbia was a small operation consisting of two hospitals in El Paso, Texas. It began aggressively acquiring public and private healthcare facilities across the country. And in 1994, Columbia merged with its biggest rival, Hospital Corporation of America, better known as HCA. Soon afterwards, the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange.

Some public health advocates have accused the company of sacrificing quality healthcare in its drive for expansion and profits. The company's troubles were compounded this past March, when the FBI raided a Columbia/HCA hospital in El Paso. The raid was part of a federal probe by the Justice Department and the Department of Health & Human Services into suspicions that Columbia had overbilled the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The government's investigation of the company has widened in the months since then.

There were fifty-one search warrants that were issued, and they were issued in seven different states. In addition to that, I had fourteen subpoenas out for specific information, and two of those were at headquarters in Tennessee. It's a very large organization, with many, many hospitals, home health agencies, and other types of health care providers. And there are various financial arrangements between the various components, and also possibly with others that they deal with. So we're looking at those financial arrangements to see if they all meet the Medicare guidelines.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

5. yeah and isn't he now Florida's new Governor ?

[indepat]

6. If so, such innocuous fraud piffles must not have amounted to a proverbial hill of

beans to FL voters. ;)