RICK SCOTT. WHAT A PIECE OF WORK!

Rips off 1.8B Medicare fraud!

The statement refers to a major healthcare fraud settlement involving Columbia/HCA, a hospital corporation that Senator Rick Scott co-founded and served as CEO of during the 1990s

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• The company, Columbia/HCA, ultimately agreed to pay a total of $1.7 billion in fines and penalties to settle allegations of defrauding federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid. This was, at the time, the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.

• The fraud involved systematically overcharging federal health programs, billing for unnecessary services, inflating diagnoses, and paying kickbacks for patient referrals. The U.S. Department of Justice secured 14 felony convictions against the company.

• Rick Scott was pressured to resign as CEO in 1997 before the settlement was finalized. He was never personally charged with a crime in connection with the case. During depositions related to the case, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination over 75 times. He walked away with millions in company stock, making him one of the wealthiest members of Congress. 

Scott has acknowledged responsibility for "mistakes" made by the company but has attributed the government's investigation to political persecution.