"but it all seems a little out there..."

Here is how HealthSouth did it.

I call it..

"The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good”

How 9-11 & War Covered Up HealthSouth

..

12 months after 9-11, Ms. Alice Martin, the U.S. attorney in
Birmingham and her counterparts from around the country were called to
Washington for a conference on corporate fraud and white collar crime
with Attorney General John Ashcroft, Deputy attorney general Larry
Thompson and SEC chairman Harvey Pitt.  In her hand written notes at
the meeting, Ms. Martin, a 46-year old former nurse turned lawyer
jotted down this line: “The perfect is the enemy of the good”.  She
said in an interview that what that meant was that, “Your case doesn’t
have to be perfect.  You don’t have to prove every crime.  If you’ve
got enough evidence to back up a few good charges, don’t work for
another year nailing down every shred of evidence for every possible
charge that might be there.

Wall Street Journal, Friday, April 04, 2003, (ref: wsj200)
“HealthSouth Case Emerges As A Model Strategy” by Anne Carrns in
Atlanta, Carrick Mollencamp in Birmingham, and Deborah Soloman and
John R. Wilke in Washington

Two and a half years later, on June 28, 2005, HealthSouth’s Chief
Executive Officer, Richard M. Scrushy was found.. not guilty on all
charges.

If only the feds had worked just another year, nailed down just a few
more shreds of evidence, and found just a few more possible charges..

..what might they have uncovered?

The federal government’s case obviously wasn’t “perfect”.

..or was it?

Think real hard and try to remember what were you doing.. hours after
the September 11 terrorist attacks?

Were you back to business-as-usual.. hours after the terrorist
attack?  Probably not – but for the Alabama legislature 9-11 was..
just another day.

“In 2001, HealthSouth, with support from the Alabama Gov. Don
Siegelman, won a State Senate vote to exempt the company’s planned
$300 million high-tech “digital hospital” from the state process for
approving new hospitals.  PACS controlled by HealthSouth lobbyists
contributed $63,000 to state politicians before the vote, which came
just hours after the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks..”

(Wall Street Journal, Friday, May 09, 2003) (ref: WSJ288) By Ann
Carrns in Atlanta, Sarah Lueck in Washington, and Evan Perez in
Montgomery Al.

Now think real hard and try to remember the first terrorist bombing of
the World Trade Center in February of 1993.  If you remember that..
then you probably remember two days later on the 28th of February when
Attorney General Janet Reno began the assault on the Branch Davidians.

Sorry, that was a trick question.

There is absolutely, positively, no way whatsoever you remember that.

Why?

Because Attorney General Janet Reno did not begin the assault on the
Branch Davidians.

The Acting Attorney General was Stuart Gerson.. not Janet Reno.

Stewart Gerson was a senior advisor for the campaign of George H. W.
Bush during the 1988 Presidential election, and a member of the Bush
Administration’s National Health Policy Working Group as head of its
Medical Malpractice Reform Working Group.

Back to healthcare.

The story of Medicare begins when, in the mid 1940s, at the start of
the cold war against socialism, President Truman first suggested
socializing healthcare

1947 marks the beginning of the “digital revolution,” the first actual
war against cancer and it was the year the word “cancer” was first
permitted to be spoken on the radio.

In 1947, the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered, the CIA was founded,
and Arthur Anderson had been cooking Halliburton’s books for just
about a year.

The 1940s was a very, very busy decade.  For instance, July 7th 1947
was the first flight of the British Rolls-Royce Nene jet-engine.  It
just happens to be installed in a Russian fighter jet referred to as
the MiG-15.  The Rolls-Royce engine was “gifted” to Russia with the
Queen’s blessing because at the time.. Britain was strapped for cash
and Prime Minister Atlee was a liberal so historians won’t be
recording this event as an un-American affair and a technology
transfer to a cold-war enemy.

A day later, on July 8th 1947, the Soviet Union declined to
participate in the Marshall Plan and a UFO reported to be traveling
about the speed of a MiG 15 crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.  The UFO
was immediately stripped of all Rolls-Royce patent numbers and
insignias by the newly founded CIA.

Eleven cold-war years later in 1958, the Deputy Director of Rolls-
Royce visited Peking, China and was “horrified” to discover that the
Russian MiG planes had counterfeit versions of the Rolls-Royce Derwent
and NENE engines.

In August of 1950 President Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize all
the nation’s railroads to prevent a general strike.  The railroads are
not returned to the owners until two years later.

Civics 101: As a rule, socialists seize industries because they are
socialists – capitalists seize industries to prevent labor strikes.

In 1960, thanks to the patriotic efforts of Rolls-Royce, the cold war
is off to a smashing good start, machinists are earning an average of
$1.56 an hour and the title of “computer programmer” was included for
the first time in the U.S. Census.

Thirty-five years from now the computer programmer will be earning up
to $200.00 an hour which is equivalent to $400,000.00 a year.
This is what is known as “bad planning” if you are a global labor
expert and it will mark the first time and probably the last time this
level of wage inflation has ever occurred during any industrial
revolution throughout history.

It is around this time that the United Nations begins to freak out
about this seemingly inexorable rise of wage inflation in the
information age so they start to give some serious thought on how to
proceed with the globalization of the jobs that the digital revolution
is going to introduce.

First on the list is the passage of the India Electricity Supply Act.

Mother Theresa is then given the title of “Patron Saint Of Offshoring”
by the Calcutta Department Of Commerce and she is soon assigned the
job of India’s Electrical Utility Supervisor.  This is when Mumbai
went by the name Bombay.

Back to healthcare.

Healthcare services are of the most difficult professions to globalize
so in 1950 UCLA began its “Willed Body Program” to lower the costs of
the war against cancer a little.

As a rule – all roads lead to globalism.  Enron is a good example of
one of these roads.  Since medical professions are difficult to
outsource – as another rule – all roads lead to Medicare Fraud

So, in 1962.. H. Ross Perot founded EDS to do information technology
work for large corporations and cook the books for the upcoming
Medicare and Medicaid program.

It eventually becomes glaringly obvious that exploitation of this
program was one of the primary purposes of the Medicare and Medicaid
program to begin with.

In 1964, “My Fair Lady” became a film that teaches undocumented and
third-world workers such language as “the rain in Spain falls mainly
on the plane” and “is the head of the household there” and “Verizon is
offering 1000 free minutes”, and “I love menial jobs Americans don’t
want”

On July 30th 1965, President Johnson signed the Medical Care Act of
1965 into legislation.

That same year, the founders of National Medical Enterprises (now
known as Tenet Healthcare) recognized the potential for healthcare
monopolization through fraud in the new Medicare system.

Four years later they founded NME and began their healthcare monopoly
play with the purchase of 10 hospitals, nursing homes, an office
building and some undeveloped real estate in California with $23
million in capital secured from the sale of public stock.

Two days before Christmas 1971 not a creature was stirring as
President Nixon signed the “National Cancer Act” committing vast sums
of other people’s money to fighting the dreaded disease of wage
inflation in the healthcare service and information technology
industries.

The following year.. three ships crossed in the night.

Newt Gingrich received his PhD. from Emory University in Atlanta,
Georgia and Richard M. Scrushy and Eric R. Hanson (while “waiting
tables” at the University of Alabama) also began to observe the
potential for fraud in not only Johnson’s Medical Care programs but
also Richard Nixon’s new Certificate of Need and War on Cancer
programs as well.

The third ship is another story entitled: George H.W. Bush And The
U.S.S. Erbitux”

Now Richard and Eric realized that there was a huge war on cancer
windfall and nobody could legally construct a hospital without the
Federal government’s approval.  This offered the potential for three
different monopolies (REITS,) hospital construction, and.. healthcare)
all subsidized by the defrauding of a few big “liberal socialist
programs” and it is the likely foundation for Hillary Clinton’s vast
right wing conspiracy which as it turns out was so vast.. it actually
included her.

Question: How do accountants sweep book-cooking, Medicare fraud and
securities fraud under the rug?

Answer #1: With two brooms, one broom known in the accounting biz as
the “expectations gap” which was coined by Carl D. Liggio in 1974 for
the fact that the public thinks accountants are supposed to catch
crooks while the accountants say they aren’t.  Carl Liggio eventually
becomes the General Council of Ernst & Young

(Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, June 11, 2003, 9ref: wsj296) “What
Ernst Did For HealthSouth” by Jonathan Weil

Answer #2: Another broom referred to by Richard M. Scrushy as
“Pristine Auditing” (we'll get to that later).

By 1975, National Medical Enterprises was the owner of 23 hospitals
and a home healthcare business and the founders once again quickly
observe the potential for government fraud in nursing homes and home
care.

Late in 1975 two more ships pass in the night.

Captain Orrin, pilot of the U.S.S. Hatch is elected to the U.S. Senate
representing the state of Utah and begins “public service” in 1977.
Quick note: If you suspect Medicare fraud occurring at your place of
employment – this is not the guy to call – unless you are.. an inside
shareholder.

The other ship is the U.S.S. Oracle, founded in 1975 by Larry Ellison.

That same year the founders of NME are confident that Nixon’s
Certificate Of Need program shouldn’t represent too much of a hurdle
to their healthcare monopoly play, so National Medical Enterprises
purchases Stolt, Incorporated, a hospital construction monopoly.

By 1980, after purchasing the Hillhaven Corporation (long term care)
National Medical Enterprises is able to boast of a presence in 33
states as well as a secured 5-year, billion dollar health care
contract in Saudi Arabia.

By 1982 National Medical Enterprises’ revenues exceed $1 billion and
NME owns 193 hospitals and nursing homes then it buys National Health
Enterprises (66 long-term homes).

A year later National Medical Enterprises purchases the Psychiatric
Institutes of America (PIA) - 21 mental health centers and forms
recovery centers of America (RCA) extending NME’s financial corruption
into the arena of not only the elderly but now the mentally ill.

NME now monopolizes two patient demographics that will have difficulty
comprehending their medical bills.

President Johnson’s corporate healthcare program of 1965 is in full
swing and entrepreneur, Richard Scrushy is well on his way to learning
how the healthcare business really works.

He is giving serious thought to founding his very own Medicare funded
healthcare empire and in 1984  Richard Scrushy and Aaron Beam, Jr.
found HealthSouth.  George H. Strong, a private investor and chief
financial officer of hospital operator Universal Health Services
becomes a HealthSouth director.

The following year C. Sage Givens, founder of private ventures capital
fund, Acacia Venture Partners became a director at HealthSouth.  As
HealthSouth’s empire begins its downfall in the early 2000s, Strong
and Givens, along with eventual newcomer and glass hospital
construction monopolist Larry Striplin are the members of
HealthSouth’s audit committee which is reported to have only met once
during that period and therefore the committee is cited as a cause of
the accounting problems.

In other words, the audit committee forgot to meet while they were
cooking the books.

In 1985 Raymond L. Mathiasen, a specialist in accounting “expectations
gaps” joins NME following a 19-year career with Ernst & Young

Also this year the Texas healthcare and the energy industry put on
their boots and dance the two-step as Charles A. Lemaister and Kenneth
Lay begin to serve as Enron board members.  LeMaister eventually
becomes the President Emeritus of the University of Texas M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center.

In 1986 HealthSouth goes public and the “great communicator”
recommends phasing out of the “certificate of need” (CON) program and
signs a law repealing it.

This “act” lends the question: “Repealing it” for whom?  If Reagan
(the great deregulator) repealed it this year then why did it have to
be repealed by the Alabama State Legislature hours after the planes
hit the World Trade Center?

It is beginning to look like Medicare, Medicaid, the war on cancer,
and the certificate of need programs are legislative tools to
coordinate healthcare monopolies.

Sometime around Reagan’s 1986 repeal of the “certificate of need” and
HealthSouth’s IPO, Orrin Hatch wrote to federal bank regulators on
behalf of an individual whom, eventually if not presently, is involved
in the hospital construction business.

His name is Monzer Hourani.

Remember?  These are the hospitals one needs to get [buy] a
Certificate of Need to construct.

Orrin Hatch urged them to consider Hourani’s explanation of why he
defaulted on a loan.  Hourani had been managing a small real-estate
investment for Senator Hatch in the 1980s.  After 1996 or “a few years
later” (which is a Latin term for “1991”) Senator Hatch worked to
arrange a $10 million loan for Mr. Hourani from the Bank of Credit and
Commerce International (BCCI; founded in Pakistan in 1992) and BCCI
later collapses in a money laundering scandal and is closed by
regulators.

In 1987 As speculation begins to peak in stocks and real-estate,
Earnst & Young, the accounting enterprise that specializes in not
catching accounting crooks, is at it again, as former E&Y accountant,
Weston L. Smith joins HealthSouth as an officer in the reimbursement
department.

April 7th of 1987 marks the inception of an organization of Catholic
businessmen calling itself Legatus.  A week earlier on the 29th of
April, 1987.. the Fed "began to ease" Depression Era banking limits.

And less than a month and a half after the fed began to ease the
depression era banking limits, President Ronald Reagan made his famous
remark at the Berlin Wall:

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down these accounting walls.”

Get it?

“Tearing Down Walls”?

Sanford Weill “got it”.

And.. the market crashed as the DJIA falls more than 500 points on
October 19th 1987.

The year after the crash Richard Botts joined HealthSouth, Inc.  It is
said that “his situation mirrors in some ways the dozen of HealthSouth
executives who will eventually plead guilty,” so it is likely that
Ernst & Young are around here somewhere.

In the early 1990s Eric Hanson is in the market for a used Lincoln
sedan so he buys one from Harold E. Ford Sr. (a congressman from
Memphis Tennessee).  Just by coincidence HealthSouth is seeking and
receives state approval for at least two new rehabilitation hospitals
in Tennessee, including one in Memphis.  At this time, Mr. Ford, who’s
son succeeds him in Congress is now a lobbyist whose clients include
HealthSouth’s “partner” in Memphis.

What is a three-letter word for Medicare fraud?

Answer: W-a-r

In 1991 Operation Desert Storm begins, KPMG starts to provide tax
compliance and advisory services to HealthSouth and some HealthSouth
executives, and.. National Medical Enterprises is under investigation
for fraud and kickbacks within its psychiatric division.

After three years of fraud and kickback investigation, in July of
1994, NME pays $363 million in penalties and $16 million in state
penalties to conclude the investigation.

Another quiz:

Medicare Math Question: A few billion dollars in Medicare fraud minus
$379 million in penalties equal how much profit?

In April of 1992, “a HealthSouth patient files an improper billing
(“Transmittal 1753 For Dummies”) for physical therapy by unqualified
personnel case in Texas”.

Approximately a year after this improper billing case Newt Gingrich
begins consulting Richard Scrushy.. er.. scratch that.. Richard M.
Scrushy begins consulting Newt Gingrich on the healthcare business in
the small college town of Waleska, Georgia.

By June of next year it will become apparent that Congressional
Minority Whip Gingrich was left out of the Medicare fraud loop on this
“unqualified personal” investigation.

The year is 1993 and National Medical Enterprises is still settling
insurance fraud lawsuits relating to its psychiatric business.  This
settlement is for $215 million

Following the February bombing of the World Trade Center, the April
bomb assignation of the President of Sri Lanka and the March bombing
of the Bombay Stock Exchange (the same day of Janet Reno’s “swearing
in”,) conservative think tanks from around the country set out
immediately to institute plans to protect America from the Radical
Islamic fundamentalist threat facing the nation.

In early June of 1993, infuriated at the failure of the Clinton
administration to send representatives to the site of the first
terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Congressman Newt Gingrich
coordinates a 20-hour satellite TV course entitled: “Defending America
Against The Arab Terrorist Threat” at Kennesaw State College,
Georgia.

Not!

What did he really do?

He began to “Renew American Civilization” by collaborating for the
next three years with America’s leading thinkers, practitioners,
intellectuals, consultants, journalists and..

.. drum roll please..

and. . . . . . . . .   Richard Scrushy?

I have heard of a poor judge of character before.. but please…

“June 01, 1993”

“Beginning in the fall quarter of 1993 and again in the Winter
quarters of 1994, 1995 and 1996, Congressman Newt Gingrich will teach
a for credit class offered through the School of Business
Administration in Kennesaw State College in Kennesaw Georgia.  In
addition to the 150n graduate and undergraduate students who enroll
for the class on campus, it will be offered through a satellite uplink
and through video and audio cassettes to students across the country..
“It is important to understand that the content of the class, while
ultimately the responsibility of Congressman Gingrich, will be
developed in collaboration with dozens --and ultimately hundreds-- of
Americas leading thinkers and practitioners.  Among those already
committed to participating in this process are intellectuals (Edwards
Demming, Evertt Carl Ladd). management consultants (Steven Covey,
Darly Conner), journalists (Bob Novak, Dick Williams, Joe Klein),
political and government leaders (Lamar Alexander, Clarence Thomas),
and business leaders (Tucker Andersen, Richard Scrushy).”

(“The Long March Of Newt Gingrich”, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newt/newtcollege.html)
huh?

“business leaders (Tucker Andersen, Richard Scrushy).”?

And in seven years, what this elite group of thinkers and intellects
come up with is described in the headlines as the..

“Greatest Accounting Fraud Ever”?

Fraud that is so systemic and enterprise wide that by 2003 even
Richard Scrushy himself is convinced that there are “8,000 companies
with s--- on their balance sheets”?

So.. rather than busy themselves with the ones who hate us, hate our
freedoms, hate our way of life and hate our western way of living, the
think-tanks focus on industrial monopolization, healthcare anti-trust,
securities fraud and accounting fraud.. and enterprise corruption.

Very few individuals knew more ways to commit Medicare fraud and
monopolize the healthcare industry then the business leader
Congressman Newt Gingrich hand-picked to help “Renew America”

And as much as First Lady Hillary Clinton knew about the politics of
health care the HealthSouth Medicaid scams went right over her head.

or did they?

In 1998, a HealthSouth patient filed an improper billing for physical
therapy by unqualified personnel case in Texas that allegedly dates
back to this date of April, 1992, so by the time Congressman
Gingrich’s “Renewing America” course was in motion, HealthSouth had
been cooking Medicare billing for services that just didn’t happen for
at least a year.

For you sports nuts out there.. that patient.. was Bo Jackson.

Just kidding..  but not to worry pop culture fans.. there are plenty
of big Hollywood names in entertainment on the way as the ‘Story of
HealthSouth” unfolds.  Remember Leslie Scrushy’s medical clothing
line, “Upseedaisies”?

On June 01, 1993, also the same day Newt Gingrich and Richard Scrushy
begin their college courses in “Renewing American Civilization,” Metro
Goldwyn Meyer Director, Jeffrey C. Barbakow’s employment commences as
President and CEO of National Medical Enterprises and marks the point
where Hollywood and healthcare begin a little bit of new-economy cross-
marketing.

Two months later in August, 700 federal agents raid NME (National
Medical Enterprises) corporate head quarters and regional offices,
seizing hundreds of documents relating to the psychiatric hospital
fraud.

Other events in 1993 include:

Arthur Anderson takes over Enron’s internal audit operation.
Wendy Gramm joins Enron’s Board of Directors
The SEC frees Enron from registering under the 1935 law, the Public
Utility Holding Company Act because Kenneth Lay is greedy.
1993 Sherron Watkins joins Enron from Arthur Anderson where she was a
CPA.
GE Capital International Services starts in Delhi as part of GE
Capital.
The Progress and Freedom Foundation is founded.
The Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA) is founded.
Peter de Jager’s “Doomsday 2000” appears in Computerworld.
The U.S. privatizes management of the internet infrastructure.
Mr Gestner leaves RJR Nabisco to join IBM.
Oxford Health Plans begins planning a new computer system that can
count past 1999.
Darleen Drunyun is appointed deputy assistant Air Force secretary for
acquisitions.
John Mendelsohn becomes scientific advisor to ImClone Systems, Inc.
According to Richard M. Scrushy, 8,000 companies start putting “s__t
on their balance sheets”.
The Stock market begins to inflate faster than a tumor in a recently
diagnosed prostate.
Enron and India sign a formal agreement for a plant that can generate
about 2450 megawatts at an approximate cost of $3 billion.
Excerpt from: “How 9-11 & Anthrax Covered Up ENteRprise corruptiON”

Here is a Indian foreign investment tip for global utility businesses
like Enron.

If you really want India to pay your energy bills maybe you should
think twice about indicting your executive officers.. and shredding
your documents?

Back to healthcare..

The year is 1994 and Newt Gingrich leads Republican opposition against
Clinton Administration and orchestrates “The Contract To Secure The
Homeland Against The Islamic Terrorist Threat”  He gathers over 300
Republican candidates on Capitol grounds for its signing in September.

In a motion for summary judgment, the presence of non-government
employees in the working groups of Hillary Clinton’s healthcare task
force is revealed.

For those readers that are interested in starting their own healthcare
monopoly this is what is known as the “Project Crimson” phase of a
changing of the healthcare monopoly guards and it helps to start doing
a little corporate name changing and relocation as well.

The “Fall Quarter” of Newt and Richard’s “Renewing American
Civilization” comes to a close and Richard Scrushy, Michael Martin,
HealthSouth’s treasurer and other businessmen take Capstone Capital
Corp. public as a real-estate-investment trust that owns health-care
facilities, including 10 sold to the REIT by HealthSouth.

National Medical Enterprises agrees to sell almost all of its
psychiatric hospitals to Charter Medical Corporation (now Magellan
Health Resources) and its rehabilitation facilities and outpatient
clinics to HealthSouth Corp.

In July of 1994, National Medical Enterprises pays $363 million in
penalties and $16 million in state penalties to conclude the three
year investigation into fraud and kickbacks within its psychiatric
division.

During the “Winter Quarter” quarter of Richard and Newt’s business
course, HealthSouth buys 30 hospitals from National Medical Enterprise
for $300 million cash?

It is this year that Senator Lieberman helps block an accounting
industry proposal to force companies to deduct employee stock options
from profits.

On the first day of the fourth quarter of this year, the SEC is
“forced” to scale back operations as congress fights over funding.

And what a fight it must have been.

This is what Newt Gingrich refers to as “deregulation” and “small
government” and “getting rid of unnecessary government spending” and
what Warren Rudman and Tyco’s Marc Belnick refer to as NASD “structure
and governance”

The year is 1995.

Repair on the World Trade Center is still in progress.

Congressman, Newt Gingrich is now Speaker House Of The House.

“We hang the petty thieves, but appoint the great ones to public
office”  (Aesop; 600 B.C.)

Bloomberg News reports that U.S. Speaker Newt Gingrich "wants Scrushy
in Congress and Alabama businessmen want him to run for
governor.”  (Bloomberg News)

“Gingrich appoints one of his top donors HealthSouth CEO Richard
Scrushy to head a secret task force on Worker’s Compensation Reform.
Scrushy raised $38,000 for Gingrich’s 1994 campaign at a fund raiser
at a HealthSouth facility in Alabama.”  (Roll Call 25/01/1996)

Now America has two “secret healthcare” task forces.

This preoccupation with healthcare so shortly after the first attack
on the World Trade Center must be very confusing to Al Qaeda and
Hamas.

But the feds are on the case.. and the Federal Election Commission
fines HealthSouth hospital construction subcontractor, Monzer Hourani,
$10,000 for illegally reimbursing employees for donations to Senator
Orrin Hatch’s campaign.

How many days can you rent a bulldozer for $10 thousand?

In 1995 HealthSouth acquired 130 independent rehabilitation centers.
Remember Newt’s $4.5 million advance on a book deal with Harper
Collins?

“..People recovering from job-related injuries on workers-compensation
should use the time to learn new skills.  The best of the nation’s
rehabilitation hospitals (such places as HealthSouth, which did Bo
Jackson’s surgery) have made enormous strides in this direction.  The
difference in what can be accomplished in these programs is often
astonishing.”  (“To Renew America” Copywrite 1995, Chapter 12; pg:
148-149)

As the “Winter Quarter” of Newt and Richard’s college “Renewing
American Civilization” business course nears its end, HealthSouth,
Inc., …

..buys NovaCare hospitals.

“Balancing the Budget and Saving Social Security and Medicare”  …
“Those who think the situation is still too distant to worry about
need look no further than Medicare to understand that America is on
the precipice of substantial fiscal problems.  Medicare is the
foundation of health care for out senior citizens.  It is a government
monopoly, and therefore inefficient, wasteful, and slow to adapt to
innovations in technology and management.  As a result, the system is
rapidly growing out of control.  Fraud, waste, and mismanagement
divert resources that ought to go the medical care of our senior
citizens.”  (“To Renew America” Copywrite 1995, Chapter 7; pg: 95-96)

A government monopoly on healthcare is now morphing into a another
corporate monopoly funded by a government monopoly?

And what is all the to-do about fraud?

“In the second largest settlement ever for healthcare fraud, Caremark
International Inc, has agreed to pay $161 million in criminal and
civil fines for paying kickbacks to doctors and submitting false
billings to the government.  As part of the settlement the government
will drop a potentially more damaging charge that Caremark violated a
federal anti-kickback statute.  If Caremark had been convicted under
that statute it would have been barred from participating from
Medicare and Medicaid programs for at least 5 years, government
officials said.  (17/06/1995; Chicago Tribune; “Healthy Penalties in
Caremark Fraud Case”)

This is the kind of law enforcement that allows Caremark (now CVS
Caremark) to become a monopoly in Prescription Benefit Management.

Richard Scrushy has got to be a little bit envious of Caremark’s
amazing luck and achievment following this settlement.

Wait a second?

Is Caremark a Birmingham, Alabama company?

“HealthSouth Corp, Birmingham Ala., said it will purchase for $125
million more than 120 outpatient rehabilitation centers from Caremark
International Incorporated in the latest of a year-long spree of
acquisitions.”  (Wall Street Journal; October 17, 1995)

“The deal will expand HealthSouth’s operations to more than 700
centers, including some of those that will soon be acquired from
Sutter Surgery Centers, Inc. and Surgical Care Affiliates in recently
announced agreements”   (Reuters; October 17, 1995)

Talk about a good investment opportunity..

oops.. spoke too soon.

November 11 of 1995, National Institutes of Health director Harold E.
Varmus wrote to all institute and center directors, rescinding
“immediately” a policy that had barred them from accepting consulting
fees and payments of stock from companies.

Where in the Bristol Meyers world is.. Louis Freeh?

Well, it is about time for the “Winter Quarter” of Newt and Richard’s
“Renewing American Civilization” business course up there in Waleksa,
Georgia, and you know the drill..

.. HealthSouth buys Advantage Health for $325 million

job well done.. guys

“as of the end of 1995” HealthSouth now operates 850 outpatient and
rehab facilities in 44 states with projected revenues of $2.6 billion
in 1996..

.. please accept this token of our appreciation..

.. December 1995, Time Magazine names Newt Gingrich..

 “Man of the Year”