The Wizard of Oz Goes to Florida
Dr. Mehmet Oz is hunting healthcare fraudsters in the Sunshine State. Why? So they can run for governor or the U.S. Senate?
This Week In Blunders – March 15-21
“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” – Carl Jung
Dr. Mehmet Oz took sharp aim at Florida this week in his crackdown on healthcare fraud.
“Florida has been a hotspot for health care fraud for years,” the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator tweeted. “The scale is out of control.”
He wants to know what Sunshine State Gov. Ron SeSantis is going to do about it. He’s previously targeted New York, Minnesota, Maine and California? Is he finally now just noticing Florida?
In a series of settlements between 2000 and 2003, HCA Healthcare paid more than $1.7 billion to settle what was then the largest healthcare fraud case in U.S. history.
Its widespread schemes included billing for unnecessary tests, inflating costs, paying kickbacks to doctors and falsifying records to maximize Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE reimbursements.
In 2010, Florida voters sent the man who ran HCA to the governor’s office and in 2018, they elected him to the U.S. Senate.
That man is Republican Rick Scott who was never charged, denied all knowledge of the improprieties that boosted profits at his fast-growing company, and made him rich off the backs of taxpayers, shareholders and the sick and dying.
Scott was forced to resign in 1997 when the feds raided HCA’s office, but as is the custom in our corporate world, he walked away with a massive severance package.
