Who Is Richard Scott—
How to Build An Empire
Scott’s goal: to lay claim to 25 percent of the nation’s hospitals. He felt the country had too many hospitals, and was hoping for a shakeout that would cut the number in half, leaving Columbia with a larger slice of what was left. To be sure, excess capacity was a problem in some parts of the country, but Scott’s solution was chillingly Darwinian. In his vision of the future, the hospitals most likely to succumb to competition would be “teaching hospitals and children’s hospitals”—institutions where operating costs are highest. His business plan left no room for unprofitable hospitals that nonetheless serve vital needs.
Meanwhile, within HCA Scott was known as a bully. “I never witnessed such an extent of demeaning, debasing and devaluing behavior as I personally experienced at Columbia,” one administrative director told the New York Times.
[ ]....In Scott’s case, that happened a short three years after he became CEO of Columbia/HCA. In July of 1997, the FBI swooped down on HCA hospitals in five states. Within weeks, three executives were indicted on charges of Medicare fraud, and the board had ousted Scott.
The investigation revealed that the hospital chain had been bilking Medicare while simultaneously handing over kickbacks and perks to physicians who steered patients to its hospitals. One can only wonder how many of those patients really needed to be hospitalized—and how many were harmed.
