Health Care Leaders: the Best and the Brightest?

We have recently discussed how even executives of relatively small, not-for-profit health care organizations are paid enough to make them rich.  The compensation and privileges given to leaders of health care organizations are often justified by the notion that they are the "best and brightest," such arguments sometimes accompanied by a few choice logical fallacies (e.g., here).  So here are a few news stories about the activities of some choice health care executives.

Canopy Financial

This company provided financing for health care services.  As reported by the Associated Press,

A former executive of the bankrupt health care company Canopy Financial Inc. has agreed to plead guilty in an alleged multimillion-dollar fraud.

Court documents released Wednesday say former chief technology officer Anthony Banas will plead guilty to wire fraud.

Chicago-based Canopy was known as one of the nation's fastest growing businesses before its 2009 bankruptcy. Many clients relied on it to pay medical bills.

Danbury Hospital

This is a community hospital in Connecticut. As reported by the Danbury News Times,

Danbury Hospital's former Chief Financial Officer William Roe pleaded not guilty Thursday morning to defrauding the hospital and a previous employer out of nearly $200,000. Roe was freed on bond after he agreed to a stringent set of conditions imposed by a federal judge.

Here are more details of the charges:

The 54-year-old Roe is accused of wire fraud and two counts of interstate transportation of stolen money, stemming from fraudulent invoices he allegedly submitted to Danbury Hospital and his previous employer, St. Rita's Medical Center of Lima, Ohio, a member of Catholic Healthcare Partners. The invoices were from a software company Roe set up in Pennsylvania in 2008, and, according to investigators, no services were ever provided to either institution.

The wire fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison, and the other two charges carry potential maximum penalties of up to 10 years each behind bars, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Kale said.

Kale initially expressed reservations about releasing Roe on bond because the court determined that hours after his arrest by FBI agents on Aug. 17, Roe violated a previous no-contact order by barraging Danbury Hospital president Dr. John Murphy with e-mails and cell phone calls and begging him to make the charges 'go away.'

A day later, on Aug. 18, Roe also sent an e-mail to the hospital's vice president for human resources, asking her to arrange a meeting with Murphy, Kale said.

Those actions resulted in the judge revoking the $100,000 bond Roe had posted and filing additional charges against him, including witness tampering and harassment.

In the Aug. 18 e-mail, Roe acknowledged that he wasn't supposed to contact any hospital officials, but sought a 'brief conversation' with Murphy 'before any court proceedings begin,' Kale said.

The prosecutor said the order had been entered because 'Danbury Hospital had expressed a concern about the employee's return' and referenced a shooting at the hospital earlier this year and another incident of workplace violence in Manchester.

Not only did Roe violate the no-contact rule, but he also traveled to Pennsylvania on Aug. 18 without notifying court officials, Kale said, even though he was supposed to seek permission before leaving the state.

H. C. Healthcare

This company operated a community hospital in Florida. As reported by the Gainesville (Florida) Sun:

The former chief financial officer of a Gainesville company that ran medical facilities in several small North Florida counties has been arrested in Illinois on racketeering charges for allegedly misusing grant money, reported the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Arrested was Natalie Ann Krasnow, 35, of Huntley, Ill., on various felony charges including racketeering, aggravated white-collar crime and operating a scheme to defraud. Krasnow is now being held on a $250,000 bond pending an initial appearance before a judge in McHenry County, Ill.

Krasnow was the former CFO of H.C. Healthcare Inc. of Gainesville. It operated and owned Trinity Community Hospital in Jasper. Krasnow's arrest is a continuation of the joint investigation by the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, FDLE and the State Attorney's Office for the 3rd Judicial Circuit into activities at the now closed Trinity Community Hospital and its affiliated clinics in Hamilton, Suwannee and Columbia counties.

Krasnow is the eighth person employed by or associated with H.C. Healthcare who has been arrested during the investigation. In July, investigators with the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, FDLE and the McHenry County Sheriff's Office arrested owner Robert A. Krasnow, 36, of Gainesville; Dr. Yong Am Park, 66, of Lake City; Robert T. Krasnow, 58, of Gainesville, the father of Robert A. Krasnow; hospital administrator Christina L. Ortega, 42, of Lake City; and licensed practical nurse Ashley Lane Butler, 37, of Live Oak.

The former medical director at Trinity Hospital, Dr. Wayne A. Rahming, and former Trinity staff physician, Jorge Prieto, were arrested by Medicaid fraud investigators in a separate scheme involving the unlicensed practice of medicine at a clinic in High Springs. Additional arrests may follow.

The investigation of Trinity Community Hospital established that more than $660,000 in state grant funds dedicated to hospital improvements were received by the corporation, but little if any of the money was used to make such improvements, FDLE reported.

Natalie A. Krasnow was the corporation's grants liaison officer with the Florida Department of Health and was instrumental in applying for and accounting for the proper disposition of these funds.

Most of the money was used either to support the activities of the criminal enterprise or diverted to the personal use of Krasnow or her brother, hospital owner Robert A. Krasnow, FDLE said.

North Memorial Health Care

This is a health care system in Minnesota. Per the Minneaopolis - St Paul Star Tribune:

David Cress, the hospital executive arrested and charged with engaging in prostitution this week, has been suspended indefinitely without pay as president and chief executive of North Memorial Health Care, officials said late Thursday.

Cress, 60, was one of about a dozen men arrested at a Richfield hotel during a daylong vice operation. He was released from jail Wednesday and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 15 on a misdemeanor charge.

He has been at North Memorial since 1982, and took over as the top executive in 2005.

Summary

So the box score is one guilty plea to fraud charges, arrests for wire fraud. interstate transport of stolen money, witness tampering and harassment; for racketeering, white collar crime, and operating a scheme to defraud; and for engaging in prostitution; and violation of a no-contact order.  The people involved were all "C-level" executives, including a CTO, two CFOs, and a CEO.

Of course, all people who are arrested are not guilty.  There are only four organizations, all relatively small, involved in this series of cases.

Again, however, should not the standard of conduct for health care leaders be somewhat higher than that of, for example, garbage haulers?  (I am sorry if that appears to insult garbage haulers.  Such was not my intention.)  For people generally paid so well because they were thought to be the best and the brightest, should not our expectations be higher.