Fraud by the book? Scott's health care company featured in business ethics textbook

The book is "Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases" and it's included on a number of college syllabi across the country, including this class at Florida Atlantic University.

Rick Scott is featured in Case #13: The Healthcare Company: Learning From Past Mistakes.

Scott was CEO of Columbia/HCA, which the textbook describes as a company where "health-care services and staffing ... often took a back seat to the focus on profits." The case study describes Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Charlotte as the focal point of a federal investigation that resulted in $1.7 billion in Medicare fraud fines.

The textbook points out that federal investigators alleged that Scott and another executive "were briefed routinely on issues relating to Medicare reimbursement claims that the government charged were fraudulent." Scott resigned from the company and was never charged with any crimes.

In its post-Scott existence, Columbia/HCA had "a new emphasis on compliance, integrity and social responsibility," according to the textbook. New training seminars focused on ethical compliance and quality issues. The company developed a code of conduct and created an internal mechanism to report wrongdoing.

The chapter ends with a list of questions for students to ponder, starting off with this: What were the organizational ethical leadership problems that resulted in Columbia/HCA's misconduct?

 

Comments

[whasup]

What the business ethics text books ought to focus on is, how this case exemplifies, the entire health care-industrial complex uses crooked accounting systems, which lets them waste and abuse money and commit fraud (including over 30% of all Medicare money spent) and why that works ill when they're trying to game either the health insurers or the government bureaucrats.

[Sheila]

This book only touches on the Rick Scott problem in the Healthcare Industry. This man is terrible. He had full knowledge of what he was doing when he fired the CFO at HCA because he didn't want to illegally cook the books. Rick Scott wanted to keep the Medicare Fraud scheme rolling. He did nothing to try to stop it. HCA had to keep over 25 per cent of its money in surplus ladies and gentlemen just in case they ever got caught. After years of FBI survelance Rick Scott could not be pinned down to this crime. He walked. He got fired. He got a bonus. Rick then went on to start another business which could make profits from Medicare Fraud.

[John]

Experts agree; Scott is a Medicare-scamming scumbag.

[Muckraker]

What Would Joe Friday Do? Answer: Arrest "THE Florida Cabal"

http://www.practicalstate.com/?p=2657

Cheers

[stock item]

Good day! this is one of the most interested statement I have heard anyone said. I have always say to myself there are no rules telling us what to do, but rules telling us what not to do. We need to start making rules telling us what to do and we will see how creative our world would be. thanks,