Who Is Rick Scott?
Rick Scott is a Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, alongside Marco Rubio. He took this office in 2019, after 8 years as the governor of Florida. Scott has reportedly spoken in support of Trump since the 2016 primaries. In 2017, Scott reportedly said he was already regularly working with Trump to come up with healthcare legislation and was unofficially tasked in 2019 to continue this work along with two other GOP senators, John Barrasso of Wyoming and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who Trump said would “come up with something really spectacular.”
How Did Rick Scott Make his Money?
According to the New York Times, before he got into politics, Scott went to law school, served in the U.S. Navy, bought and revived a couple of doughnut shops, and became a law firm partner. He also co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation, which later merged with HCA Healthcare to become Columbia/HCA and is now one of the largest for-profit hospital systems in the U.S.
But in 1997, Scott’s hospital reportedly became embroiled in an investigation conducted jointly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Health and Human Services due to concerns over potential Medicare fraud. The feds had search warrants for Columbia/HCA facilities, as well as on dozens of doctors they suspected were tied to the company in a major Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme.
Not quite months after the federal raid, Scott was reportedly pressured by the board of directors to resign as chairman and CEO.
In December 2000, the U.S. Justice Department announced what was then the largest government fraud settlement in U.S. history: Columbia/HCA had reportedly agreed to pay $840 million in criminal fines and civil damages and penalties.
The settlement reportedly revealed a number of things about the company’s practices while Scott was CEO.
--Columbia billed Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs for tests that were not necessary or ordered by physicians.
--The company attached false diagnosis codes to patient records to increase reimbursement to the hospitals.
--The company illegally claimed non-reimbursable marketing and advertising costs as “community education.”
--Columbia billed the government for home health care visits for patients who did not qualify to receive them.
A second series of claims, in a similar vein, was settled with the government in 2002, adding $881 million to the fine, bringing the total fine for Columbia’s healthcare fraud scandal to $1.7 billion. As part of the settlement, Columbia/HCA pleaded guilty to at least 14 corporate felonies, incurring financial penalties but not jail time.
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