Richard Lynn "Rick" Scott (born December 1, 1952) is a candidate for Florida governor, a businessman, healthcare industry executive, lawyer and founder of Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR), a group that advocates against expanding the U.S. government's role in healthcare. He is competing in the 2010 Florida gubernatorial election .[1] Scott served in the U.S. Navy and then went into business redeveloping donut shops while in college. He earned a business degree, law degree and joined a Dallas firm where he became partner. In 1987 he helped found the Columbia Hospital Corporation with two business partners. It was merged with Columbia Hospital Corporation of America in 1989 to form Columbia/HCA and eventually became the largest health care company in the U.S. Scott was ousted by Columbia/HCA's board of directors in 1997 in the midst of the nation's biggest health care fraud scandal. The company ultimately settled the Medicaid and Medicare fraud allegations and paid out a total of $1.7 billion dollars in fines and civil claims.[2] [3] After his departure from Columbia/HCA, Scott established Richard L . Scott Investments, a private investment firm based in Naples, Florida that owns stakes in health care, manufacturing and technology companies.
Early life and education
Rick Scott was born in Bloomington, Illinois and raised in Kansas City, Missouri , where his father was a truck driver and his mother worked as a clerk at J.C. Penney , among other jobs. Scott graduated from high school in 1970, and then attended one year of community college after which he enlisted in the United States Navy . He was in the Navy for 29 months and served on the USS Glover as a radar technician. Scott later attended the University of Missouri and earned a law degree from Southern Methodist University .
In 1972, he married his high school sweetheart. As of early 2009 the couple lived in Naples, Florida .
Business career
Scott made his first foray into business while he was in college, buying and reviving two Kansas City doughnut shops. After graduating from law school, Scott practiced law in Dallas, Texas . He was a partner at Johnson & Swanson, which was the largest law firm in Dallas at that time. One of his major clients was Tom Hicks of HM Capital Partners .
Columbia Hospital Corporation
In April 1987, Scott made his first attempt to buy the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). While still a partner at Johnson & Swanson, Scott formed the HCA Acquisition Company with two former executives of Republic Health Corporation, Charles Miller and Richard Ragsdale. With financing from Citicorp conditional on acquisition of HCA, the proposed holding company offered $3.85 billion for 80 million shares at $47 each, intending to assume an additional $1.2 billion in debt, for a total $5 billion deal. However, HCA declined the offer, and the bid was withdrawn.
In 1988, Scott and Richard Rainwater , a multimillionaire financier from Fort Worth, each put up $125,000 in working capital in their new company, Columbia Hospital Corporation, and borrowed the remaining money needed to purchase two struggling hospitals in El Paso for $60 million. Then they acquired a neighboring hospital and shut it down. Within a year, the remaining two were doing much better. By the end of 1989, Columbia Hospital Corporation owned four hospitals with a total of 833 beds.
In 1992, Columbia made a stock purchase of Basic American Medical, which owned eight hospitals, primarily in southwestern Florida. In September 1993, Columbia did another stock purchase, worth $3.4 billion, of Galen Healthcare, which had been spun off by Humana Inc. a few months before. At the time, Galen had approximately 90 hospitals. After the purchase, Galen stockholders had 82 percent of the stock in the combined company, with Scott still running the company.
In 1994, Columbia purchased Scott's former acquisition target, HCA, which had approximately 100 hospitals. In 1995, Columbia purchased Healthtrust, which had approximately 80 hospitals, primarily in rural communities. By 1997, Columbia/HCA had become the world's largest health care provider with more than 340 hospitals, 130 surgery centers, and 550 home health locations in 38 states and two foreign countries. With annual revenues in excess of $23 billion, the company employed more than 285,000 people, making it the 7th largest U.S. employer and the 12th largest employer worldwide. Based on market capitalization, Columbia ranked in the top 50 companies in America and top 100 worldwide. That same year, the company was recognized by Business Week magazine as one of the 50 Best Performing Companies of the S&P 500.
Columbia/HCA fraud cases
In the mid-1990s, the Department of Health and Human Services increased its enforcement of Medicare regulations and compliance, increasing its allocation of agents to such cases from 100 in 1992 to 375 by the first half of 1998. Prominent targets of federal investigations included Harvard -affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center , Johns Hopkins University hospitals, and Columbia/HCA.
Documents from Columbia/HCA facilities were seized by federal agents in March 1997, forming the basis of an investigation into Columbia/HCA for unnecessary lab tests, falsifiying reports to increase Medicare reimbursements, among other violations. In 2001, HCA reached a plea agreement with the U.S. government that avoided criminal charges against the company and included $95 million in fines. In late 2002, HCA agreed to pay the U.S. government $631 million, plus interest, and pay $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies, in addition to $250 million paid up to that point to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims. In all, civil law suits cost HCA more than $1.7 billion to settle, including payments of more than $500 million paid in 2003 to two whistleblowers, under controversial qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act . In 2000, following the settlement, Columbia/HCA reverted to using the name HCA.
Rick Scott was never charged with any wrongdoing. According to the Tampa Tribune, Scott wanted to fight the government's charges, but the board disagreed and he was forced out. Scott related to the newspaper, "My belief when I was there was that if we did something wrong, then we would live up to any of our mistakes. If we didn't do something wrong, we should not settle things." According to a website associated with the Rick Scott campaign, the board of directors approved a severance package and a 10-year consulting contract.
Venture capitalist
After his forced departure from Columbia/HCA in 1997, Scott launched Richard L. Scott Investments, based in Naples, Florida (originally in Stamford , Connecticut ), which has stakes in health care, manufacturing and technology companies.
Between 1998 and 2001, Scott purchased 50% of CyberGuard Corporation for approximately $10 million. Amongst his investors was Metro Nashville finance director David Manning. In 2006, CyberGuard was sold to Secure Computing for over $300 million.
In February 2005, Scott purchased Continental Structural Plastics, Inc. (CSP) in Detroit, Michigan. In July 2006, CSP purchased Budd Plastics from ThyssenKrupp , making Continental Structural Plastics the world's largest industrial composites molder in North America.
In 2005-2006, Scott provided the initial round of funding of $3 million to Alijor.com, which offered hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers the opportunity to post information about their prices, hours, locations, insurance accepted, and personal backgrounds online. The company was founded with his daughter Allison. In 2008, Alijor was sold to Healthgrades, Inc.
In May 2008, Scott purchased Drives, one of the world's leading independent designers and manufacturers of heavy-duty drive chain-based products and assemblies for industrial and agricultural applications and precision-engineered augers for agricultural, material handling, construction and related applications.
Scott reportedly has an interest in a chain of family fun centers/bowling alleys, S&S Family Entertainment, in Kentucky and Tennessee led by Larry Schmittou , one of baseball's legendary minor league owners.
The Health Network
In July 1997, Columbia/HCA Healthcare purchased controlling interest in America's Health Network (AHN), the first 24-hour health care cable channel, which had 6.5 million viewers at the time. Later in 1997, Scott beca
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