The Tampa-based insurer WellCare Health Plans, Inc. “has been accused of bilking taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars by using fraudulent practices that were integral to the company’s profit-making,” according to the St. Pete Times.
Federal authorities’ complaint against Wellcare “alleges that the company hid profits in an offshore subsidiary, pushed high-cost patients off its rolls and onto government programs, including hundreds of premature babies and terminally ill patients, and kept Medicaid payments that it knew were mistakenly paid.” Authorities’ undercover source “estimates the fraud cost Florida and six other states between $400 million and $600 million.”
But that hasn’t stopped politicians from taking money from Wellcare’s political action committee. Via Harper’s Magazine:
WellCare’s PAC stopped making political contributions in the fall of 2007, after the Justice Department raided its headquarters. But now WellCare’s PAC is back in business, sending $2,500 to the Freedom Project, House Minority Leader John Boehner’s personal “Leadership PAC.”
The Harper’s link also reveals WellCare donated $500 to Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Tallahassee, in April.
