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Florida Bulldog

Lawsuit: Corrupt giveaway at Broward Health to cost $2.5 billion over 25 years

By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org 

Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Health Medical Center, flagship of the North Broward Hospital District.

A corrupt deal at Broward Health that “gave away” the public hospital district’s radiation business for treating cancer patients is costing the troubled public hospital system an estimated $100 million a year in revenue.

That stunning allegation about taxpayer-supported Broward Health’s 25-year contract with 21st Century Oncology is contained in an amended complaint in the federal whistleblower case brought by former Broward Health chairman David Di Pietro and unsealed last week.

Florida Bulldog reported in February 2016 that Gov. Rick Scott had a financial interest in 21st Century when Broward Health’s board awarded it the unprecedented 25-year, no-bid contract to provide radiation oncology services at the district. Republican Scott, who as governor appoints Broward Health’s board, was then an investor in a private-equity firm that owned 21st Century.

“Under the terms of the original deal over the course of a 25-year contract, [former Broward Health President/CEO Frank] Nask gave away in excess of $2.5 billion in potential revenues to 21st Century Oncology with a potential profit margin in excess of $500 million,” says the complaint.

“In return, Broward Health would receive annual lease payments from 21st Century for the radiation equipment and hospital space. The lease payments totaled approximately $880,000 a year.”

The original length of the contract is for 10 years, with an option for the company to extend the contract three times for five-year periods.

Gov. Scott’s appointments ‘controlled’

According to the complaint, Nask accepted kickbacks delivered by the governor’s friend, 21st Century’s Fort Lauderdale lobbyist William “Billy” Rubin, to make the deal happen. The complaint says Rubin “controlled” the governor’s appointments to Broward Health’s board.

Lobbyist William “Billy” Rubin, left, and Gov. Rick Scott

Following the board’s approval of the contract in January 2012, 21st Century contributed nearly $400,000 to Gov. Scott’s re-election campaign, Florida Bulldog previously reported. The company likewise gave generously to the Republican Party of Florida.

Nask did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Rubin did not respond to a message left at his office.

The governor’s office released this two paragraph statement:

“Neither the Governor’s office nor the Governor are named as a party in this lawsuit, which was filed against a private company four days after Mr. Di Pietro resigned from the board in April 2016. Governor Scott has acted to make sure that the North Broward Hospital District is accountable to the taxpayers they serve and will continue to do just that.

“In fact, after Governor Scott took office in 2011, he put all his assets in a blind trust so they would be under the control of an independent financial professional. As such, the Governor has no knowledge of anything that is bought, sold or changed in the trust.”

The governor’s statement is at least partially incorrect, however. The trustee of the governor’s blind trust is Hollow Brook Wealth Management, a New York firm whose chief executive is Scott’s longtime business crony, Alan Bazaar.  Further, U.S. Securities and Exchange records show that Gov. Scott personally filed required reports disclosing large stock sales while those securities were in the “blind trust.”

The amended complaint has not yet been filed in the whistleblower case now before Fort Lauderdale U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams. It was, however, filed last week in federal bankruptcy court in New York, where Fort Myers-based 21st Century is seeking to reorganize and shed more than half of its $1.1 billion in debt.

21st Century announced its voluntary filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May in the wake of declining revenues and two expensive settlements with the Justice Department of alleged Medicare billing fraud in 2015 and 2016. The total cost of the settlements: $54.5 million.

Lawyers for Di Pietro, appointed by Scott to Broward Health’s board in September 2011, filed the amended complaint as part of an adversary action in bankruptcy court that asks the court to declare that, unlike 21st Century’s other debts, Di Pietro’s whistleblower action under the federal False Claims Act should not be discharged by the court.

The whistleblower suit

The lawsuit against 21st Century and 100 “John Doe” defendants seeks to recover money wrongfully billed to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs. Federal prosecutors recently declined to intervene in the case, but are keeping a careful watch on developments. Di Pietro stands to receive a substantial reward if his lawsuit leads to any recovery.

Kickback schemes traditionally involve payments that are doled out to facilitate an illicit scheme. But the alleged kickback scheme described in the complaint does not involve cash-stuffed envelopes.

Rather, the lawsuit contends that lobbyist Rubin told CEO Nask that if he supported approval of 21st Century’s contract, the governor would appoint board members who would protect his job, $680,000 annual salary and pension.

Nask allegedly accepted Rubin’s offer and later paid what the complaint calls “hush money” to buy the silence of the operators of another cancer care company, HealX, that Nask pushed out to pave the way for 21st Century. In all, the lawsuit says, Nask authorized the payment of $830,000 to Heal X and Dr. Anurag Agarwal.

Nask did not tell the board about the kickbacks that induced the deal or his hush-money payments, and led the board to believe that HealX had quit, the complaint says. Further, Nask “obscured” financial information about the deal, including “major losses” and the fact that the contract let 21st Century “bill, collect and keep all global revenues associated with outpatient radiation oncology services” – a “major change in the billing arrangement” for the district’s oncology services, the complaint says.

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Comments

13 responses to “Lawsuit: Corrupt giveaway at Broward Health to cost $2.5 billion over 25 years”

  1. J.C. …I hope there is some jail time for these republiCON bums. Makes me want 2 puke when i read this shit.

  2. The Obvious Question Avatar
    The Obvious Question

    The States Attorney must ask himself, why would the Broward Health General Counsel Lynn Barrett push so hard to destroy Pauline Grant for alleged “kickbacks”related to an on-call schedule that was poorly investigated and not address and in fact permit and promote the continued relationship with 21st century even though 21 century’s chapter 11 filing provided Broward Health the perfect opportunity to terminate the contract.
    Could the reason be that Lynn Barrett is really Billy Rubin’s inside girl and could she really be corrupt? Maybe those that spend so much time trying to convict others really have their own demons to hide.

  3. Simone Miller Avatar

    Isn’t it time that our crooked governor and his pals do so real jail time?

  4. Hi.

    Great work!

    Thank you!

  5. “I know on top you are seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom , we too should have rights”

  6. Harvey Weinstein Avatar
    Harvey Weinstein

    Hey is anyone looking into the financial relationship between Rubin and Foley Lardner?

  7. So, the beat goes on, and another bright light goes out. Bobby Bugg is out at BHN. These fucking cretinous dickskins have rewarded a job well done by Robert shit canning him from the CEO job at BHN. He took over a difficult situation at best an gave BHN stability. He was proactive with employees, and gave them a steady hand. While the District as a whole continued to shit all over themselves. Although not always in agreement with his actions, the effort to take action and be proactive was much appreciated from past admins. So as we move forward hopefully he will stay in some capacity. At some future point I will expound on how unceremoniously Robert was dispatched and the POS that will replace him. But for now all I can say is THANK YOU, Bobby Bugg for a job well done.

  8. Alice Taylor is NOT a formal employee of Broward Health – named CEO?

  9. Capasso hired her friends to be on the C jobs:

    – CFO Alan Goldsmith and COO Gino Santorio, both from Jackson North, NO experience at all !!

    – Of course, Capasso herself, a failed CEO at Jackson with a FAKE degree !!

    Ask these people to refund their salary so the medical centers can hire more experienced nurses for excellent patient care!

  10. I do not think anyone understands the shock and bad feeling we all have with Alice Taylor coming to BHN, aptly after Halloween when the witch will be flying high and about to cast her wicked spells at BHN. RB was amazing he took over a mess was never in his office always rounding and always after the nurse managers about poor care, he brought stability and a sense of true team work, because he truly cared, his severance from that position is sinful, a black nasty horrible action from Capasso, pure evil. A better person to remove would have been Betty Anne Ruditz, Nursing at BHN is truly messed up.
    Alice is of course a good friend of Rocky R so the spell and cast of evil continues.
    Just remember Capasso Karma is a bitch and it will come back and bite you just when you least expect it. ALICE TAYLOR you are hated already HATED by many compassion is with RB NOT YOU

  11. James Martin thank you. Everyone that knows And has worked with Robert realizes how tragic replacing him will be. The Cunt Capasso is out to ruin the District like she ruined Jackson. This Bitch is as phony as a three dollar bill. Alice Taylor fuck you premptively. The rest of you cocksuckers fuck you too. The good employees of BHN don’t deserve this shit. I don’t want to hear “ give Alice a chance”. To what fuck us. Look at the history of this whore, ask the good people of Imperial. She’s a Cancer, Capasso Cancer, Goldsmith and Santorum cancers. We are a medical center for Christ’s sake can’t someone cut these scumbags out?

  12. Southern belle Avatar

    Come on guys this is not the spirit Broward Health, we are all upset at how BobbyB was treated, but this is not right either, just saying

  13. So day 3 under the dictatorship of Alice the terrible
    The atmosphere in the hospital is horrible
    All we hear from BHIP is she was always saying she did not want to go, well guess what we do not want you either
    Her meeting with the managers and directors left many in shock with some of her management ideas
    IP is a small hospital not a trauma center not a comprehensive stroke center I feel sorry for the directors of these programs under her dictatorship

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