Audio By Carbonatix
When Rick Scott starts considering hospital privatization, it’s worth revisiting his past.
The Sun-Sentinel reported that Scott established a commission to investigate whether the state could trim a layer of budgetary fat by selling government-run hospitals to private companies and non-profits.
The panel will essentially run a cost-benefit analysis on the current
hospital system, checking for wasted tax dollars and examining the best
way to revamp the system to make it a boon for the state rather than a
budgetary leech.
Scott’s analysis of the system is reminiscent of
the investigation that the government conducted on Columbia/HCA, the
private hospital chain that he formerly ran. This 2010 Miami Herald
article breaks up Scott’s past into digestible bits that are worth
chewing over. The gist is that Scott resigned from Columbia/HCA, which
employed nearly 300,000 people, in 1997, the same year “federal agents
went public with an investigation into the company.” Columbia/HCA billed
Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary tests, among several other
equally shady infractions.
The Herald article continues,
“In December 2000, the U.S. Justice Department announced what it called
the largest government fraud settlement in U.S. history.” The company
paid $1.7 billion in fines. Scott was never charged with wrongdoing, and
it’s unclear “how much he knew, and when he knew it.”
Government
efficiency is certianly something to strive for, especially in these
lean times. But Rick Scott’s consideration of privatizing hospitals is
something to think twice about. We expect heated debates on the horizon as the
investigation moves ahead.
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