skippy the bush kangaroo: 20 largest cases of companies bilking the government

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

20 largest cases of companies bilking the government

hhmmm....any on the list sound familiar in the healthcare battle? these names sound familiar of those leading the battle cry that medicare is going bankrupt?

1) tenet healthcare -- $900,000,000 under the false claims act
in july 2006, tenet healthcare (formerly known as nme, see #9 on this list) agreed to pay the federal government $900 million for billing violations that include manipulation of outlier payments to medicare, as well as kickbacks, upcoding, and bill padding.

wow...$900 million dollars. think of how many cancer treatments that would have provided to american citizens.

2) hca -- $731,400,000 under the false claims act
in december 2000, hca the healthcare company (formerly known as columbia hca), the largest for-profit hospital chain in the united states, pled guilty to criminal conduct and agreed to pay more than $840 million in criminal fines, civil penalties and damages for unlawful billing practices. ....note that the december 2000 agreement does not resolve allegations that hca unlawfully charged the u.s government for the costs of running its hospitals, and that it paid kickbacks to physicians to get medicare and medicaid patients referred to its facilities.

hmmm...criminal activity. a criminal corporation with kickback plans to bilk the american people of medicare moolah.

3) hca -- $631,000,000 under the false claims act
in june 2003, hca, inc. (formerly known as columbia/hca and hca the healthcare company) agreed to pay the united states $631 million in civil penalties and damages arising from false claims submitted to medicare and other federal health programs.

yeah...hca again. $631 million dollars. think how many people were put to death needlessly to amass that sort of largesse.

8) healthsouth -- $325,000,000 under the false claims act
in december of 2004, healthsouth corporation, the nation's largest provider of rehabilitative medicine services, agreed to pay the united states $325 million to settle allegations that the company systematically defrauded medicare and other federal healthcare programs.

$325 million dollars. think of how many heart operations could have been performed to save americans lives. oh, and key phrase here to raise the bloodpressure...systematically defrauded. systematically.

13) bayer corporation -- $257,200,000 under the false claims act
in april 2003, bayer corp. paid $257,200,000 to settle medicaid fraud charges involving a "lick and stick" scheme in which bayer sold re-labeled products to an hmo at deeply discounted prices, and then concealed this price discount in order to avoid paying additional rebates to the government.

$257+ million dollars. think of how many american could have gotten prescriptions to ease their pain and suffering with this amount. bayer licked and stuck it to americans.

now...tell me again why these very same people are blaming the government for medicare problems? tell me why we should trust the history of our country to these folks.

yeah...i'm mad as h**l and i, for one, am not going to take it anymore.

(big tip o'the kangaroo tail to government dirt for the list....go see the complete list)

Labels: corporations, corruption, criminal, healthcare, medicare, public health, true crime

posted by Cookie Jill at 1:22 PM |

7 Comments:

Fines are not an appropriate remedy for defrauding the government. But I'd be okay with it if the government first fined the offenders, then revoked their corporate charters and put them out of business.

commented by

Phil, 4:00 PM PDT

Nice catch Cookie Jill :)

commented by

nunya, 9:14 PM PDT

And the CEO of HCA, Rick Scott when it was convicted of fraud is now a spokesperson for one of the groups opposing Obama's revision of the healthcare system, Conservatives for Patients Rights.

commented by

gmoke, 11:01 PM PDT

And those fines were levied by the DOJ
during the W Bush area. The most
generous time for corporations in
the history of America

commented by

Colonel Panik, 9:03 AM PDT

And still, nobody seems to be in jail.

commented by

fiver, 10:27 AM PDT

@fiver, see comment directly above yours by @Colonel Panik for explanation as to why that might be.

commented by

Stella, 3:29 PM PDT

Interesting article as for me. It would be great to read something more about that theme. Thank you for sharing that info.
Joan Stepsen
Hi tech pharma

commented by

123 123, 4:39 AM PST

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