His name is Gary D. Newsome and he's at least $22 million richer since 2010 after becoming CEO to Health Management Associates, a for-profit hospital chain based in Naples, Fla., and driving this fraud.
This month, the Justice Department said it had joined eight separate whistle-blower lawsuits against H.M.A. in six states. The lawsuits describe a wide-ranging strategy that is said to have relied on a mix of sophisticated software systems, financial incentives and threats in an attempt to inflate the company payments from Medicare and Medicaid by admitting patients like an infant whose temperature was a normal 98.7 degrees for a fever.
Physicians were pressured, with scoring and tabs kept, to unnecessarily admit patients over age 65. Admitting over 50% of Medicare patients got a doctor a "Green" score, those who didn't play along got a failing "Red" score. Admissions for medicaid patients were similarly inflated.
CEO Newsome joined the hospital chain in 2008.
The architect of the strategy to raise admissions, according to several of the lawsuits, brought by an array of physicians, individual hospital administrators and compliance officers, was the company’s former chief executive, Gary D. Newsome.
"Gary vigorously denies the allegations", according to an email from his lawyer, Barry Sabin of Latham & Watkins.
His Church of Latter Day Saints seems not to have noticed so far. Having "Retired" at age 55 from HMA, Brother Newsome has been
called by the First Presidency to be the Mission President of the Uruguay Montevideo Mission where he has served as Counsilor, stake president counselor, Young Men Advisor and missionary. As mission president he is basically in oversight
of administrative, ministerial, organizational and financial matters for the mission.
"The only qualifications [for Stake President] are that they are honest in their business and financial dealings and that they pay a full tithing. . ."
I guess you could call it batting .500. Good luck, LDS.
At least one criminal indictment against a former executive has been made related to this case.