This is not precisely what you had requested, but direct connections
will be hard to make. The confluence of business and politics is now
so intertwined, as can be seen by the connections with the Frist
family, Richard Rainwater and GWB, that it is a seemless relationship.
Columbia/HCA is a partnership of financier Richard Rainwater of Ft.
Worth and the father and brother of US Sen. Bill Frist.
Rainwater also owns a large stake in Magellan Health Care which
controls Charter Medical. Magellan,
The investigations of Columbia/HCA's apparent gaming of the Medicare
system in the 1990's, continue on a huge scale. Columbia/HCA announced
it is weighing a proposal to spin off up to one-third of its 340
hospitals into a second company. Most of these properties being
considered for spin-off were acquired three years ago with the
acquisition of HealthTrust Inc.
Richard Rainwater is a financial genius who guided the Bass Brothers
of Ft. Worth into expanding their inherited fortunes before going out
on his own. As Bass financial advisor he put them into Disney and
holds a large block of stock himself in this company which has grown
tremendously until the recent Baptist boycott.
Rainwater has been putting money into real estate and into oil and gas
exploration companies. He formed Ensco by putting together Blocker
Drilling and Penrod, making the combined company one of the world's
largest contract drillers.
He infused Mesa Petroleum with enough cash to put it back on its feet,
ousting founder T. Boone Pickens in the process. Later he merged Mesa
with Parker and Parsley of Midland to form the third largest
independent oil and gas company in the world. Rainwater thinks big and
he knows how to play the game. He and wife Darla Moore both have
MBA's. Moore oversees the psychiatric hospital business.
Rainwater's Crescent Properties has been buying up Dallas and Ft.
Worth real estate at a fast clip and is now entering the Houston
market. He is the largest landlord in Dallas already. Rainwater now
owns a piece of the Texas Rangers baseball team. He recently purchased
Don Carter's interest in the Dallas Mavericks Basketball Team,
becoming a partner with Ross Perot, Jr.
In August 1998, Rainwater's Crescent Cos announced they will not
follow through on their earlier intention of acquiring the other 50%
of Charter Health Care which they didn't own. Rainwater and his wife
own about 15% of Magellan Health Services which in turn owns %50 of
Charter. His Crescent Cos had intended to acquire Magellan's 50% stake
in Charter in addition to the 50% Crescent already owned.
http://www.businessweek.com/1998/48/b3606001.htm
http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/10/2003/LIR.jhtml?passListId=10&passYear=2003&passListType=Person&uniqueId=EKO5&datatype=Person
http://blog.kir.com/archives/000651.asp
May 13, 2004
What is Richard Rainwater up to?
One of the more interesting Texas billionaires is Ft. Worth's Richard
Rainwater. He cut his teeth in the big-time financial world by
overseeing the tremendous increase in value of the Bass Brothers' from
1970 through the mid-1980's, including what turned out to be a very
lucrative bet on the Disney Co. during that period. Rainwater then
struck out on his own investing heavily in energy, real estate
investment trusts, and health care and, as he put it several years
ago, "I'm just a retired guy who made a couple billion by being in the
right place at the right time."
Maybe so, but Rainwater's contrarian investment strategy has always
been interesting to follow. Today, this Wall Street Journal ($)
article reports on Rainwater's latest investment -- buying a 7.5%
stake in battered telecommunications giant Global Crossing Ltd. in
recent weeks as its share price plunged in response to new accounting
troubles and possible delisting from Nasdaq.
News of Mr. Rainwater's investment in Global Crossing along sent the
company's shares up $1.30 to $10.70 yesterday afternoon. The stock had
lost almost 40% of its value in less than the past month after
management announced that it might need to restate financial results
for the past two years and that Nasdaq may delist the company.
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,373705,00.html
In and of itself, this transaction would have given Bush a return of a
little over $2 million. However, at some point during Bush?s tenure as
managing partner of the Rangers, his fellow owners significantly
increased his stake in the team, free of charge. This netted Bush an
extra $13 million when the team was sold. Much of this gift presumably
came from the main stakeholder in the team, Rainwater, who benefited
financially in numerous ways during Bush?s tenure as governor.
Krugman notes in his July 26, 2002 New York Times column that at one
point the Texas teachers? retirement system sold several buildings to
a company controlled by Rainwater for a $70 million loss, without
allowing other investors to bid on the sale.
http://bushwatch.org/bushmillions.html
http://www.polarisinstitute.org/corp_profiles/public_service_gats/corp_profile_ps_hca.html
Richard Rainwater and George W. Bush ? Rainwater, one of the founders
of Columbia HCA in the 1980s, is a friend and business associate of
Bush?s, who, as reported by the New York Times, is one of the main
reasons Bush was able to make millions of his past business
investments. Rainwater played a major role in the investment of Bush
into the Texas Rangers baseball team, which netted Bush more than $10
million upon its sale. In 1995, soon after meeting with Columbia HCA
President Richard Scott, then Governor Bush vetoed a Texas patient
protection bill. The bill, which Columbia HCA was very much against,
would have expanded the number of children and adults covered by the
state?s health insurance program for the poor. (?Midas Touch Was
Billionaire?s Gift to Bush?, Barry Meier, New York Times, October
30th, 1999; Center for Public Integrity News Conference, January 2000)
Tennessee Senator Bill Frist and George W. Bush ?Senator Frist, who
has held enormous stock in HCA, disclosing that in 1994 $13 million of
his personal wealth of $20 million was in HCA stock, was on the short
list of potential choices by Bush to be his Vice-Presidential running
mate (Dick Cheney was eventually chosen). Frist's father and brother
founded Columbia HCA. He has been called the Republican point-man in
the Senate on Health issues and opposes the proposed patients? bill of
rights. (?VP horse race hitting the final pole: Decision time
approaching for GOP?s George W. Bush?, Ron Fournier and Douglas Kiker,
The Telegraph Online (AP Story), July 22, 2000)
Department of Labor ? joint program with HCA: HCA said it would train
1000 people to become nurses in their hospitals. The labor department
decided to match this number with scholarships for training nurses who
will later work for HCA. This is corporate welfare for a company that
has been investigated and charged with defrauding the government and
has been cutting wages greatly and gaining raised fees from the
government for Medicare bills.
(The program was reported by Bovender at the UBS Warburg sponsored
?Global Healthcare Services Conference?, a health care privatization
conference held in New York, February 5th, 2002)
CEO Jack Bovender, on HCA?s relations with the Bush Administration:
?very sanguine?based on the budget. [The government has sent] a clear
message [that] it won?t be detrimental?Medicare rate increases will
happen with this government.? (Bovender at the UBS Warburg sponsored
?Global Healthcare Services Conference?, a health care privatization
conference held in New York, February 5th, 2002) |
