Dear Harry,

I wanted to make sure you saw this great piece on “The Real Rick Scott.”

For the first time since Rick Scott entered the Governor's race, a reporter wrote a comprehensive story examining Rick's success at Columbia/HCA and his battle to defeat first Hillarycare
and then Obamacare.

I invite you to read and share the story of the “Real Rick Scott” with ten friends through email or Facebook.

It's a very comprehensive piece, and a must read in this race - here are the highlights:

The Real Rick Scott

By Matt Walsh | Editor
Friday, October 15, 2010

When Lindy Richardson Street interviewed in 1993 with then-Columbia
Healthcare Co. CEO Rick Scott to be the company’s director of marketing and
communications, she was still shaking off the effects of a distressing
professional experience. To her disbelief, the federal government had
indicted one of her associates at another company.

The ordeal — intensive investigations and depositions and public fallout —
was draining. Street was not part of the alleged conspiracy, but its effects
consumed her for months. She never wanted to confront a similar experience
again.

So when Street started her interview with Scott, she told him: “I have to
tell you, if you ever ask, hint at it or suggest to me, or if it smells or
feels like it’s illegal or immoral, I won’t do it, and furthermore I will
tell people you did.”

Street pauses.

“I never had to remind him of that conversation,” she says today. Street
worked side by side with Scott from 1993 until he resigned from Columbia-HCA
in 1997.

…

Media reports routinely say Scott’s Columbia-HCA Corp. “systematically”
defrauded the federal government — never citing evidence that it was proven
Scott or his fellow senior managers condoned or even hinted at perpetrating
the alleged fraud, never citing evidence of malice and premeditation by
Scott. In last week’s gubernatorial debate, Democratic candidate Sink simply
repeated the mantra: “I can’t think of anything more frightening,” she said.
“He led a company with the most massive Medicare fraud, cheating seniors and
taxpayers … The people of Florida cannot trust you at all.”

To be expected, the state’s biggest newspapers dug into the scandal. They
reported, although downplayed, that Scott was never charged with any crimes nor
investigated. The Miami Herald said “federal investigators found that Scott
took part in business practices … that were later found to be illegal” —
citing no evidence of Scott’s personal involvement nor noting that these
“practices” were widely accepted in the industry until federal regulators
changed the rules.
…

But if you talk to the people who worked at Scott’s side during his tenure as
Columbia-HCA’s CEO, former Columbia-HCA board members, as well as outsiders
whose companies did business with Scott or sat on opposite sides of a
negotiating table with Scott, the picture of Rick Scott is far different from
the one

Scott’s political opponents and mainstream media have depicted.

• Stephen Braun, Columbia-HCA’s general counsel who has known and worked with Scott for nearly three decades: “He’s as honest as a Boy Scout.” Former
  Columbia-HCA board member Dr. Magdalena Averhoff of Miami: “Honorable,
  straightforward, sincere.
• Rick revolutionized medicine. He was a visionary.” Josh Nemzoff, owner of Nemzoff & Co. LLC., who sat across from Scott on eight sales of hospital
  companies to Columbia-HCA and has never been paid a dime by Scott or
  Columbia-HCA: “I would never use the term arrogant to describe Rick.”
• Asked how Scott was different from other hospital CEOs back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Nemzoff says: “Very simple. He’s smarter than all of them.”
  George Pillari, founder and CEO of HCIA Inc., an independent company
  that analyzed the efficiency of Columbia-HCA hospitals, and who worked
  with Scott.
• Asked about Scott’s ethics and honesty, Pillari says: “That’s never questioned.”

…

The tough standards and expectations brought results. In 1996, the peak of
Scott’s tenure at Columbia-HCA, with less than 10% of the hospitals in the
nation owned by Columbia-HCA, 26% of the hospitals ranked in the Top 100
hospitals were Columbia-HCA hospitals, regarded as unheard-of in the
industry. (Since then, the highest percentage of Top 100 hospitals for HCA
has been 14% in 2000; it was 0% in 2003 and 2004). In a 1995 Gallup
Organization poll of patient satisfaction, 94% of Columbia patients rated
their care as satisfactory to very satisfactory, compared to 88% nationally.

“They were high-performing with good outcomes,” Pillari says. “He was ahead
of his time using performance measurements. Now it’s done everywhere.” Even
the federal government has adopted many of the measurement standards.

Patient satisfaction and quality of delivery of health care — those were the
chief goals for Scott. He wanted American consumers when they needed to a
hospital to think of a Columbia-HCA hospital first. Quality was the mantra.
“If the employees heard it once, they heard it a million times,” Street says.
…

Read the full story here.

Sincerely,

Susie Wiles

Campaign Manager

Rick Scott for Florida