Is this really a scandal?
Thursday, Oct 16, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Executives of a nursing home chain owned by Bruce Rauner’s investment firm made banned campaign contributions to Ohio lawmakers in 2003 and then improperly billed Medicaid for reimbursement of the donations, according to court records in the company’s ongoing federal bankruptcy case.
Company officials self-reported the actions to authorities more than a year after they became aware of the $48,500 in potentially illegal donations, according to a letter from lawyers for the nursing home chain known as Trans Healthcare. […]
The mishandling of the donations and Medicaid reimbursement eventually led to an $800 fine from Ohio election authorities and a $137,454 settlement with federal Medicaid regulators.
Details of the Ohio troubles, tucked inside the huge bankruptcy file, add to questions about what involvement Rauner had in oversight of the nursing home chain, which he helped launch as the head of Chicago-based equity firm GTCR. Those questions have become a matter of public debate because Rauner, the first-time Republican candidate for governor, is basing his bid to oust Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn on the strength of his business resume.
* The key here is “self reported.” Doug Ibendahl had the deets on this way back in February, when an amended complaint was filed in Florida against Rauner’s former nursing home chain. Ibendahl highlighted excerpts from the complaint and here’s some of what he pointed out…
¶ 84. Due to the severity of the fraudulent financial statements, THI terminated its former CFO, Jeffrey Barnhill. His subsequent litigation with THI revealed that Barnhill was involved in illegal campaign contributions on behalf of THI and its owners.
¶ 85. Barnhill was reimbursed for a $49,500 contribution as a non-salary and non-taxable event he made in 2003, for which THI then sought reimbursement from Ohio Medicaid. […]
¶ 88. In an effort to gain distance from the illegal contribution scheme, after Barnhill revealed the illegal scheme in a federal court pleading, THI and GECC utilized a law firm, the Mintz Law Firm, to be involved in “self-reporting” the Medicaid part of the crime to the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office of the Inspector General, to seek forgiveness.
¶ 89. The Office of the Inspector General imposed a fine of $137,000.
¶ 90. THI was also advised to report the illegal contributions to the Ohio Election Commission, which issued an $800 fine.
So, they found out that their CFO was apparently crooked, fired him, got sued, discovered the campaign contributions billed to Medicaid, reported the violations and paid the fines.
Am I missing something here?
- Louis G Atsaves - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:02 am:
Nope. You hit the hail right on the head. Cue a Quinn commercial to the contrary in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .
- phocion - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:02 am:
==So, they found out that their CFO was apparently crooked, fired him, got sued, discovered the campaign contributions billed to Medicaid, reported the violations and paid the fines.
Am I missing something here?==
Yes. Election Day is in 19 days.
- How Ironic - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:02 am:
“self-reported the actions to authorities more than a year after they became aware of the $48,500 in potentially illegal donations”
My question is why did they wait “more than a year” after they became aware?
It’s good they self reported, but it almost seems as though they were hoping it would go unnoticed. Perhaps they got wind that an investigation was ramping up and tried to head it off, by self reporting?
That’s the only thing that makes me wonder. Why wait over a year?
- circularfiringsquad - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:03 am:
And Mitt missed it all
Another great BizWiz moment
Still waiting for the report one Mitt company did someone some good
All he ever talks about is earning for investors
BTW it appears most of the stock market crashing these days stems from a hedge fund stampede…hats off to Mitt’s pals at ReBooting
- OneMan - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:05 am:
Business guys bad, Quinn good…
- Valerie F. Leonard - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:06 am:
Scandal or not, the story helps give insight into the way GTCR does business.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:09 am:
Nope, the company handled the issue appropriately. I am not sure if the CFO was one of the “rock star” execs that GTCR recruited but it would lead one to believe they missed on that one.
- Bill White - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:09 am:
Good intentions combined with a failure to implement effective oversight.
Sounds like NRI to me.
Willful wrongdoing by GTCR? Apparently not based on this ” . . . So, they found out that their CFO was apparently crooked, fired him, got sued, discovered the campaign contributions billed to Medicaid, reported the violations and paid the fines. . . . ”
That said, if Team Rauner continues to attack Quinn on NRI then they look like inhabitants of a glass house, throwing stones.
- Rick T. - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:10 am:
I think you’re going a little easy on him, Rich. No, it ain’t the Watergate break-in. The self-reporting does mitigate things. But his firm did hire a guy and put him in charge of a company. The guy subsequently bills Medicaid to reimburse his campaign contributions — that’s a pretty bad thing. If a governmental official hired by Quinn did something that blatantly wrong, Quinn would get hammered by the press and Rauner, even if Quinn’s administration discovered the problem and fired the guy.
- D.P.Gumby - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:12 am:
pattern and practice…can’t dismiss everything that all of Brucie’s companies and executives have done wrong as just coincidences. Not everything can be traced to him, but he’s the one that keeps talking about the “culture” in Springfield. Seems there’s a “culture” in all his companies.
- circularfiringsquad - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:12 am:
We forgot to mention that all this self reporting was the only time this group of bandits stole from the patients, vendors, Medicaid.
Right
Isolated
Lone Wolf
Boy that guy fooled us
You gotta be kidding
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:15 am:
If you’re in Ohio, this merits scrutiny.
I am in Illinois, it merits an eyebrow lift, than I move on, taking the grain of salt with me…from a self-reported transgression.
- Big Muddy - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:16 am:
It’s Ibendahl, so there’s that.
- MrJM (@MisterJayEm) - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:18 am:
No new scandal, just more of the same, i.e. “questions about what involvement Rauner had in oversight of the nursing home chain, which he helped launch as the head of Chicago-based equity firm GTCR.”
– MrJM
- Demoralized - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:19 am:
==Am I missing something here?==
Rational people would come to the same conclusion that you do. I think what you are missing, though, is that Rauner lays the blame at Quinn’s feet for anything anybody has done in state government - bad apples or not. I think this is one of those “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” moments.
- walker - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:21 am:
The only relevance might be if the GTCR guys vetted or recruited this outstanding executive.
- Wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:30 am:
No, GTCR just betrayed again by one of their rock stars. They just trusted too much.
- RNUG - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:33 am:
Nothing to see, just business as usual.
- Anon. - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:36 am:
Sorta like the self-disclosed Cayman Island accounts.
- Grandson of Man - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:40 am:
To me it also comes down to how much in tax dollars was misspent in all of the businesses Rauner’s company owned. He says public workers are overpaid and accuses unions and others of corruption.
The judge in the nursing home bankruptcy trial said something like it’s reasonably inferred that the company was involved in the operation of the homes. If true, beside the horrific suffering, how much public money was misspent?
- Norseman - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:58 am:
So Quinn’s folks should do a walk-back of this claim like the Raunervich folks have done a walk-back of their education funding lie, correct?
- DuPage - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 11:59 am:
It begs the question, how did they “bill Medicaid” for “donations”?!?! They obviously used phony billing for nursing home and medical bills for services not actually performed. How much other inaccurate billing went on in these Rauner controlled nursing homes? These are the sort of things that hurt the reputation of all nursing homes including the many very good ones.
- Anon. - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 12:14 pm:
==It begs the question, how did they “bill Medicaid” for “donations”?!?!==
It says that “they” reimbursed Barnhill and included the reimbursement in their Medicaid billing. Reading between the lines, I doubt that Barnhill’s claim for reimbursement said “for illegal campaign contributions,” but probably indicated that it was for some legitimate, busienss-related expenditure.
- AFSCME Steward - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 12:18 pm:
I think this is relevent, and a big deal. Isn’t Rauner’s big thing his ability to pick executives ? That’s what he said right ? Also, how much business did the illegal contributions generate ?
- Percival - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 12:28 pm:
Rauner’s problem is the steady drumbeat of allegations, not each thump.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 1:32 pm:
No scandal, just more evidence that Rauner likes hiring shady operators.
- truthteller - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 2:43 pm:
Now we know how he’s going to reduce Medicaid fraud. He’s going to instruct his companies not to bill for items not covered
- steve schnorf - Thursday, Oct 16, 14 @ 3:41 pm:
No, Rich, I don’t think you’re missing anything important