Thom Hartmann now: Today's story from Russell Mokhiber

[Bozita]

www.ieamericaradio.com

This is excellent.

[joanski01]

1. I watched Mr. Mokhiber this

morning on C-Span. He had my full attention. As he suggested, the corporate criminal issue would be a really great one for any of the Democratic candidates. Mokhiber revealed some really terrible crimes that these corporations commit, like selling faulty helicopters to the military knowing that they will crash, billing Medicare for those pill samples that are left with doctors, and way more. Incredible!!!

Mokhiber said if you want to know whether the Republicans or Democrats are better at prosecuting corporations, they both stink.

[Bozita]

2. I saw it too. That's the reason for this "heads up"

Mokhiber left out the fact that Columbia HCA is the family business of Senator Bill Frist (R-TN).

Largest cases of Medicare fraud in history.

[Bozita]

3. link to Sen Frist/ Columbia HCA -- shocking

http://www.talkleft.com/archives/001695.html


Saturday :: December 21, 2002

Frist: The Heir Apparent

The Washington Post profiles Tennessee Senator Bill Frist today, and he seems like a really nice man with really bad politics.

The Post portrays him as a jetsetter surgeon who pilots himself around in his own plane, occasionally to pick up organs for his needy patients. He was born rich and got richer. His family owned a company called HCA that morphed into the "largest chain of for-profit hospitals in the country." After a hostile takeover in which his family ceded control, HCA became Columbia/HCA.

"In 1997, FBI raids on company hospitals turned up widespread Medicare fraud. According to attorneys for the whistleblowers who revealed the massive overbilling, HCA engaged in illegal practices even before the takeover. But Thomas Frist Jr. returned to the helm of the company as unpaid chairman and chief executive, and worked to restore trust in the company. This week, HCA (the old name is back) announced that it would pay the federal government $631 million to settle fraud claims-bringing the total payments by the company to $1.7 billion...."




"With the health system in crisis, Republicans are considering a Senate majority leader who made his millions from a family-run company that defrauded Medicare, overstated expense statements, billed for services ineligible for reimbursements and paid kickbacks to physicians to encourage referrals to HCA facilities," said Physicians for a National Health Program, which has clashed with Frist over health care issues."

more...