April 29, 2018

Rick Scott wants to take his bad ideas to Washington

https://thinkprogress.org/what-did-rick-scott-accomplish-as-florida-governor-db01f503e098/
"Rick Scott is just plain shady Rick Scott has been making suspicious business deals even before he was a politician. In 1997, Scott oversaw one of the largest Medicare frauds in United States history. He resigned as the CEO of health care giant Columbia/HCA amid an FBI investigation into the company’s fraudulent billing practices which resulted in the company being charged with 14 felonies and paying $1.7 billion in criminal and civil fines for Medicare fraud. According to investigators, Scott and other company executives violated federal law by offering financial incentives to doctors in exchange for patient referrals. Some Columbia/HCA employees claimed they were fired, punished, or forced to delete records for raising their concerns about the company’s practices with supervisors. Scott claims he was never charged with a crime and never interviewed by the FBI. As governor, Rick Scott spent $700,000 in taxpayer funds to settle seven public records lawsuits alleging he and a number of his staff violated state laws by creating email accounts to shield communications from state public records laws. Scott met with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in the days leading up to the announcement that Florida would be “off the table” for offshore drilling after it was previously announced the state would be subject to offshore drilling. Records obtained by Politico reaffirm the perception at the time that “the Trump administration’s decision to reverse course and remove Florida from the list was carefully choreographed to give Scott a political win.” He continuously struggled with how to disclose his wealth and conflicts of interest while in office. In short, he’ll fit right in in Washington, D.C."