Rick Scott
45th Governor of Florida
Incumbent
Assumed office January 4, 2011
Lieutenant	Jennifer Carroll
Preceded by	Charlie Crist
Personal details
Born	(1952-12-01) December 1, 1952 (age 59) Bloomington, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Ann Scott (née Frances Annette Holland)
Children	2
Alma mater	University of Missouri, Kansas City Southern Methodist University
Profession	Lawyer; business executive
Religion	Evangelical Christian
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1971–1974[1]
Rank	Petty officer, third class[2]
Unit	USS Glover

Richard Lynn "Rick" Scott (born December 1, 1952) is a businessman and the 45th and current Governor of the U.S. state of Florida. He served in the U.S. Navy and then went into business. He earned a business degree and law degree and joined a Dallas firm where he became partner. His net worth was almost $219 million USD in 2010, but by 2011 was estimated at $103 million.^[3] He spent an estimated $75 million of his own money on his successful 2010 run for Governor of Florida.

In 1987, at age 34, he co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation with two business partners; this merged with Hospital Corporation of America in 1989 to form Columbia/HCA and eventually became the largest private for-profit health care company in the U.S. He resigned as Chief Executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997 amid a controversy over the company's business and Medicare billing practices; the company ultimately admitted to fourteen felonies and agreed to pay the federal government over $600 million; Scott was not implicated.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Scott later became a venture capitalist.

Scott announced his intention to run for Governor of Florida in 2010. He defeated Bill McCollum in the Republican primary election and defeated Democrat Alex Sink in a close race in the 2010 Florida gubernatorial election.^[9]

Early life and education[link]

Rick Scott was born in Bloomington, Illinois, the second of five children born to financially struggling parents. He was raised in Kansas City, Missouri, where his father, Orba Scott, was a truck driver, and his mother, Esther, worked as a clerk at J.C. Penney, among other jobs.^[10] Scott graduated from high school in 1970, and then attended one year of community college after which he enlisted in the United States Navy. He was in the Navy for 29 months^[11] and served on the USS Glover as a radar technician. He attended college on the GI Bill, later graduating from the University of Missouri–Kansas City with a bachelor's degree in business administration and earned a law degree by working his way through Southern Methodist University.^[12]

In 1972, he married his high school sweetheart, Frances Annette "Ann" Holland; they have two daughters.^[10] They live in Naples and are founding members of Naples Community Church.^[13]

Early business career[link]

Scott made his first foray into business while working his way through college and law school, initially buying and reviving two Kansas City donut shops. After graduating from law school, Scott practiced law in Dallas, Texas. He was a partner at Johnson & Swanson, which was the largest law firm in Dallas at that time. A major client was Tom Hicks of HM Capital Partners.^{[citation needed]}

Scott history at Columbia Hospital Corporation[link]

In April 1987, Scott made his first attempt to buy the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). While still a partner at Johnson & Swanson, Scott formed the HCA Acquisition Company with two former executives of Republic Health Corporation, Charles Miller and Richard Ragsdale.^[14] With financing from Citicorp conditional on acquisition of HCA,^[15] the proposed holding company offered $3.85 billion for 80 million shares at $47 each, intending to assume an additional $1.2 billion in debt, for a total $5 billion deal.^[16] However, HCA declined the offer, and the bid was withdrawn.^[17]

In 1988, Scott and Richard Rainwater, a financier from Fort Worth, each put up $125,000 in working capital in their new company, Columbia Hospital Corporation,^[18] and borrowed the remaining money needed to purchase two struggling hospitals in El Paso for $60 million.^[19] Then they acquired a neighboring hospital and shut it down. Within a year, the remaining two were doing much better.^[11] By the end of 1989, Columbia Hospital Corporation owned four hospitals with a total of 833 beds.^[19]

In 1992, Columbia made a stock purchase of Basic American Medical, which owned eight hospitals, primarily in southwestern Florida. In September 1993, Columbia did another stock purchase, worth $3.4 billion, of Galen Healthcare, which had been spun off by Humana Inc. several months earlier.^[20] At the time, Galen had approximately 90 hospitals. After the purchase, Galen stockholders had 82 percent of the stock in the combined company, with Scott still running the company.^[19]

In 1994, Columbia purchased Scott's former acquisition target, HCA, which had approximately 100 hospitals. In 1995, Columbia purchased Healthtrust, which had approximately 80 hospitals, primarily in rural communities. By 1997, Columbia/HCA had become the world's largest health care provider with more than 340 hospitals, 130 surgery centers, and 550 home health locations in 38 states and two foreign countries. With annual revenues in excess of $23 billion, the company employed more than 285,000 people, making it the seventh largest U.S. employer and the twelfth largest employer worldwide. Based on market capitalization, Columbia ranked in the top 50 companies in America and top 100 worldwide. That same year, the company was recognized by Business Week magazine as one of the 50 Best Performing Companies of the S&P 500.^{[citation needed]}

Columbia/HCA fraud case details[link]

On March 19, 1997, investigators from the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services served search warrants at Columbia/HCA facilities in El Paso and on dozens of doctors with suspected ties to the company.^[21] The Columbia/HCA board of directors pressured Scott to resign as Chairman and CEO following the inquiry.^[22] He was paid $9.88 million in a settlement. He also left owning 10 million shares of stock worth over $350 million.^[23][24][25] In 1999, Columbia/HCA changed its name back to HCA, Inc.

In settlements reached in 2000 and 2002, Columbia/HCA pled guilty to 14 felonies and agreed to a $600+ million fine in the largest fraud settlement in US history. Columbia/HCA admitted systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about use of hospital space. They also admitted fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. They filed false cost reports, fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers, and paid kickbacks in the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients. In addition, they gave doctors "loans" never intending to be repaid, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

In late 2002, HCA agreed to pay the U.S. government $631 million, plus interest, and pay $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies, in addition to $250 million paid up to that point to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims.^[26] In all, civil law suits cost HCA more than $2 billion to settle, by far the largest fraud settlement in US history.^[27]