Attorney General Bill McCollum blasted by Tampa lawyer Barry Cohen over Wellcare lawsuit

Attorney General Bill McCollum blasted by Tampa lawyer Barry Cohen over Wellcare lawsuit



Tampa, Florida -- The attorney for the Wellcare whistle blower is asking the Florida Supreme Court to disqualify Attorney General Bill McCollum from making any decisions involving the proposed multi-million dollar settlement in the case.

"He's got no business representing the people of this state in this agreement with Wellcare," said Barry Cohen, who is representing whistle blower, Sean Hellein.

The Florida Attorney General must approve the pending $137.5 million settlment that stems from a False Claims Act lawsuit filed on behalf of the U.S. government.

Cohen claims McCollum's financial ties to Wellcare. He went through a list of contributions by Wellcare to McCollum, the Republican Party of Florida and other Republican leaders between 2002 and 2007.

"It's called legal bribery," said Cohen.

He also blasted McCollum for failing to investigate how much Wellcare allegedly stole from the state, which his client estimates exceeds $400 million.

"You can't expect them to bite the hand that feeds them. In the meantime, the people keep getting screwed over and over," said Cohen.

McCollum is not commenting on the case. However, an office spokeswoman released this statement to 10 News: "We are waiting on further direction from the court."

The whistle blower in this case, Sean Hellein, worked as a top level financial analyst.

When he noticed the corruption within the company, he says he made the decision to go to the FBI.

"We would sit in a room and think about the leadership's bonuses and the literal conversation would be, 'Look, if we could shoot these people, no one cares about them, but we can't shoot them can we," said Hellein.

For 18 months, Hellein helped the FBI and Department of Justice uncover the fraud by providing documents, emails and wearing a bug and camera to document conversations.

"It's disgusting," he said of what was going on.

Wellcare entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and was ordered to pay $40 million in restitution and $40 million in forfeiture according to a Department of Justice news release in 2009.

The DOJ says the scheme to defraud Florida's Medicaid and Healthy Kids program from 2002-2006 involved over fraudulently inflating expenditures so it would not have to return money through the 80/20 Law.

The 80/20 arrangement allows health care programs to keep 15-20 percent of the money it gets to cover overhead costs. However, the rest must be spent on patient care.

Any money that's not spent on patient care must then be returned to the state.

Cohen and Hellein say Wellcare found itself in a $23 million hole and tried to get the law struck by legislators.

It almost happened, until it was vetoed by Governor Charlie Crist.

"Did he say to the citizens of this state, who he is supposed to protect, 'Hey, that's not right?' Hell no, he didn't do that and why didn't he? Because he's going to run for re-election, next time he wants to be governor," said Cohen.

While the $137.5 million settlement is still pending, Hellein and Cohen don't think it's enough, claiming it will still allow Wellcare to keep up to two-thirds of what they say it stole from taxpayers.

The men stand to gain financially from the settlement, with Hellein slated to get up to a 25 percent cut.

Cohen admits they'll make money, but said the purpose of the continued fight is for the benefit of the people.

"We're going to make a difference. We're going to put a stop to this foolishness," said Cohen of the alleged political favors and legislative quid pro quo surrounding this case.

He told 10 News he's going to keep fighting to ensure the people behind the fraudulent claims made to Florida's Medicaid system are held accountable and the taxpayers get the money they're due.

False Claims Complaint On Medicaid Fraud In Florida

I have contended from day one of the filing of the multistate lawsuit against health care overhaul that there was a nasty, subversive reason for its filing.

This is not political; it is fraud, Medicaid fraud.  

It has nothing to do with getting less coverage, nor does it have to do with increased taxation.  There are no concerns with the nation affording the new healthcare system, nor are there any concerns of businesses absorbing increased costs.  It has to do with covering up Medicaid fraud.

Here we have Attorney General Bill McCollum leading the charge to challenge the nation's healthcare restructuring.

States' Lawsuit Against Health Care Overhaul Likely To Move Forward

On Tuesday during a hearing in Florida, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson said that he likely will allow at least part of a multistate lawsuit against the health reform law's individual mandate to proceed, although he did not say which claims he intends to approve, the New York Times reports (Sack, New York Times, 9/14).

Background

The lawsuit argues that Congress does not have the constitutional authority to require all U.S. residents to obtain health insurance and that states cannot be forced to spend more to provide coverage for low-income families.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum (R) filed the complaint in March, shortly after the law was enacted, with support from 19 other mostly Republican state attorneys general and the National Federation of Independent Business.

Read more: http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2010/9/15/states-lawsuit-against-health-care-overhaul-likely-to-move-forward.aspx#ixzz11c56XJCj

The lawsuit against healthcare reform has to do with protecting the insurance industrial complex because Medicaid fraud in itself, is a multibillion dollar industry, guarded by the sleeping giant I call the States Medicaid Fraud Control Units.

7th Amended False Claims Complaint Against Wellcare, Healthease, et al for Medicaid fraud

Tampa Law Firm Petitions Against Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum On Medicaid Fraud

The Law offices of Cohen, Foster & Romine announce its public challenge to the Florida Supreme Court to disqualify Attorney General Bill McCollum  (right) from the Medicaid fraud settlement with Wellcare due to conflict of interests and questionable political activities.


Most of you are familiar with the matter of Wellcare's theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from the Florida's Medicaid Fund.  As you know, Wellcare's fraud was exposed through the efforts of my client, Sean Hellein, who provided the FBI and Justice department with the documentation and proff necessary to expose Wellcare and its officers and directors and provided the basis for a federal False Claims Act suit on behalf of the US Government against Wellcare.

The public import of this matter, however, reaches far deeper than one company's fraud and theft - massive though it is.

The systematic raiding of the State's Medicaid funds on such an enormous scale could not have occurred without the knowledge and help of certain public officials.  We have learned the Wellcare's graft and corruption was accomplished via a state government system of personal political favors, legislative quit pro quo and legalized bribery so extensive that is has permeated the entire system of legal and legislative process, thereby placing Florida taxpayers at immediate risk of losing their rights to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen Medicaid funds without so much as a word from the state's chief law enforcement officer or any other state government official.

As such, in legal action never before brought in the State of Florida, we have filed a petition asking the Florida Supreme Court to disqualify Attorney General Ira "Bill" McCollum, Jr. from making any decision concerning the proposed settlement in the Wellcare lawsuit that would have the effect of allowing Wellcare to keep nearly two thirds of the monies it stole from Florida taxpayers.

The basis for this unprecedented action is our uncovering of McCollum's financial connections to Wellcare and the employment of a political quid pro quo by McCollum and other legislators to such an extent that it has created an inherent conflict of interest and answers the questions regarding McCollum's inexplicable failure to initiate any action whatsoever on behalf of the taxpayers to even determine how much money Wellcare actually stole from the State, as well as his willful blindness to critical healthcare legislationwhich would cost the taxpayers additional hundreds of millions of dollars.

Political favors are certainly nothing new.  But the petition we have filed with the Florida Supreme court exposes legal bribery in the name of campaign contributions that is staggering in both its scope and potential cost.  We have invited the Court to address this climate of corruption disguised as political contributions in addition to requesting disqualification of Attorney General McCollum.

Consistent with out strong feelings about the public's right to know and the historical purpose of our First Amendment, we urge the press to hear the details of this landmark legal action at the offices of Cohen, Foster & Romine, 201 E. Kennedy Blvd., Suite 1000, Tampa Florida, 336o2 at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 5, 2010.

This is not limited to the State of Florida as WellCare operates in:

Florida

Hawaii 

Georgia

Illinois

Missouri

New York

Ohio

All Hail The Florida Whistleblowers!

Taking the time to disperse Medicaid fraud news is more than exposing the fraud schemes, it also praises the brave and brilliant individuals who embark on such endeavors.

All hail the whistleblowers!!!

To Barry Cohen and his associates, I thank you for believing.


Petition says McCollum gave WellCare a break in fraud case

TAMPA - Attorney Barry Cohen claims in a new court petition that Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is so tainted by campaign cash from WellCare  Health Plans and [here are the foster care Targeted Case Management programs!] that he shouldn't be involved in a massive settlement with the insurer.

Cohen's law firm is representing Sean Hellein, a former WellCare financial analyst, in a whistleblower suit against the Tampa-based company.

Hellein claims WellCare conspired over several years to defraud the federal government, Florida and six other states out of at least $400 million. [It's more than that!!!] He said WellCare got the money through Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income people.

WellCare has reached a potential deal to settle with the U.S. Department of Justice for $137.5 million. But Cohen and Hellein say the amount is too low and would allow WellCare to keep two-thirds of its ill-gotten gains.

At a news conference Tuesday morning, Cohen sought to link McCollum to what he called the state's failure to aggressively pursue WellCare. Cohen filed a petition asking the Florida Supreme Court to block McCollum from the proposed settlement.

The petition said that when he ran for attorney general in 2006, McCollum received $9,000 in direct contributions from WellCare. The figure is supported by a Tribune search of online campaign finance records.

But the petition said McCollum also benefited from more than $800,000 in contributions that WellCare provided to the Republican Party of Florida. The money was turned over to McCollum's campaign, the petition said.

The petition cites Republican Party contributions to McCollum's campaign that occurred within days of a large WellCare contribution to the party. Most money went to McCollum's campaign for attorney general, not his recent unsuccessful run for governor.

As attorney general, McCollum heads a unit that investigates Medicaid fraud.

Ryan Wiggins, a spokeswoman for McCollum's office, declined to comment on the allegations, saying, "We are waiting on further direction from the court."

Daniel Conston, spokesman for the Republican Party of Florida, denied any contributions were earmarked for McCollum.

"I'd chalk this up to one of many absurd allegations thrown around in politics today," Conston said. "The RPOF simply does not earmark contributions, nor would a contribution cause a GOP leader to turn a blind eye to a potential crime."

The petition said the contributions help explain why McCollum failed to investigate exactly how much WellCare improperly received from Florida, and why McCollum did not object when Gov. Charlie Crist appointed Andrew Agwunobi as head of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.

Agwunobi served on WellCare's board of directors before taking the job at AHCA.

McCollum also looked the other way when legislators drafted a bill that might have helped WellCare but hurt the public, the petition said.

It happened when WellCare faced a $23 million repayment to the state of Florida for overcharging its Medicaid fund. WellCare successfully lobbied for legislation to head off future repayments but Crist vetoed the bill containing the measure.